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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2017
Questions arise after US frees asylum-seeker on life support
Family grieves
By AMY TAXIN and
KRISTA LARSON
Associated Press
COLTON, Calif. — As
the eldest son among 15
children, Senegalese tailor
Saliou Ndiaye was his fami-
ly’s greatest hope for a better
life in a city rife with unem-
ployment where many still
travel by horse-drawn cart.
He learned to sew as a
child, and for years sent
money to his parents — first,
from his country’s capital
and later from a factory job
in Brazil.
But
after
Ndiaye
embarked on a lengthy jour-
ney to the United States, their
dreams were dashed. A U.S.
immigration judge denied
Ndiaye’s asylum applica-
tion in July, and after a year
locked up in California,
Ndiaye reportedly tried to
kill himself.
Now, the 33-year-old lies
in an American hospital bed,
hooked up to tubes keep-
ing him alive. Immigration
authorities recently stopped
efforts to deport Ndiaye and
released him from custody
in a decision that under nor-
mal circumstances would be
cause for celebration but in
this case has drawn criticism
from his supporters.
Ndiaye’s story is tragic
and exceptionally rare but
raises questions about the
U.S. government’s responsi-
bility for detainees’ medical
care in an immense immigra-
tion system, where more than
300,000 people cycle through
detention centers each year.
In an ironic twist, Ndiaye’s
volunteer lawyer is asking an
immigration judge to find the
government can’t properly
release an unconscious per-
son, and order Ndiaye back
into custody. She wants the
U.S. government to remain
responsible for his care and
potentially his return to Sen-
egal, where Ndiaye’s parents
pray for a miracle.
“He is our great hope,”
said his father, Mor Ndiaye,
clutching Muslim prayer
beads during an interview at
the family’s home in Touba,
Senegal’s second-largest city.
“Everything he has done, he
did it to support his family.”
AP Photo/Amy Taxin
Attorney Carrye Washington stands in front of the Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in
Colton, Calif. where her client Saliou Ndiaye remains on life support.
‘I don’t want to tell them to take him off a
machine and die. The doctor said only the
machine is keeping him alive, and if it were
turned off he would die within minutes.’
Mor Diagne
uncle of Saliou Ndiaye
U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement is
responsible for detainees’
care of regardless of where
they’re held.
Financial sense
It can make financial
sense for the government to
release ailing immigrants
to avoid providing security
for them and paying costly
medical bills that hospitals
would cover anyway for poor
patients, said Dr. Marc Stern,
a former medical expert for
the Department of Home-
land Security’s Office for
Civil Rights and Liberties,
which investigates detention
complaints.
But in some cases, the
government also may have
an incentive to free gravely
ill immigrants because deaths
in detention must be investi-
gated and reported to Con-
gress and the media. “It may
count against them if he dies
in custody,” Stern said.
Immigration and Customs
Enforcement spokeswoman
Lauren Mack said Ndiaye
was freed for humanitarian
reasons and so his family and
doctors could make medical
decisions for him.
She declined to discuss
how immigration authori-
ties handle suicide attempts
in detention, but said a report
was completed on Ndiaye’s
case in line with agency
standards.
It isn’t the first time immi-
grant advocates have raised
concerns about the release of
ill detainees. In 2015, Ethio-
pian immigrant Teka Gulema
was hospitalized for an infec-
tion while in detention in
Alabama. He was guarded
by authorities for nearly a
year but freed less than two
months before his death in
a hospital bed, said Chris-
tina Mansfield, co-founder
of Community Initiatives
for Visiting Immigrants in
Confinement.
As of last week, Ndiaye
lay in a hospital bed at Arrow-
head Regional Medical Cen-
ter, in the Southern Califor-
nia city of Colton, with a
tube through his neck to help
him breathe and another one
for feeding. His eyes gazed
into the distance, then closed,
as his chest rose and fell. He
didn’t respond to visitors.
Arrowhead declined to
provide information about
Ndiaye. But Ron Boatman,
its associate administrator,
said the hospital covers medi-
cal costs for indigent patients
when no one else can pay.
Back in Senegal, Ndiaye’s
family grieves for a son they
can’t help. Why he ended up
so far away is a mystery.
Ndiaye grew up in Touba
and attended a Muslim school.
By age 10, he would bring
his mother whatever coins he
earned sewing.
Eventually, Ndiaye moved
to the capital of Dakar to
work as a tailor, sending home
money each month.
In 2013, he told his parents
he had a visa for Brazil and
asked them to pray for him. He
traveled to the South American
country and stayed there for
two years, working in a factory
and continuing to send home
monthly contributions and for-
warding grainy cellphone self-
ies of his new life.
Without telling his parents,
he left Brazil and traveled
through nine Latin American
countries by car, bus and foot
to reach a U.S. border cross-
ing in 2016. It is a lengthy
trek often undertaken by Afri-
can migrants, who upon reach-
ing the United States tell bor-
der authorities they are afraid
to return home.
Ndiaye told officials he
left Senegal over economic
troubles and religious differ-
ences with his family, and was
sent to a California detention
facility.
The family learned of his
whereabouts when Ndiaye
called a younger brother and
told him he was detained.
Ndiaye’s relatives could
only speculate why he went
to America. His uncle, Mor
Diagne, has lived here for 35
years, and they thought maybe
he hoped to join him.
At an asylum hearing,
Ndiaye told an immigra-
tion judge he actually fled his
country because he is gay and
feared he could be killed over
his sexuality if returned. The
judge, however, cited incon-
sistencies in Ndiaye’s testi-
mony, denied his application
and ordered him deported.
Ndiaye appealed and lost.
He was due back in court for
an October hearing but never
made it.
Suicide attempt
Immigration
officials
called Diagne, a Connecticut
street vendor, to say Ndiaye
tried to kill himself using a
sock and a towel. Diagne flew
to California, and Ndiaye’s
immigration lawyer, Carrye
Washington, took him to the
hospital to see his nephew.
Two detention guards
stood watch over Ndiaye,
Washington said. Diagne
signed papers for doctors to
insert a feeding tube.
“I don’t want to tell them
to take him off a machine and
die,” Diagne said. “The doc-
tor said only the machine is
keeping him alive, and if it
were turned off he would die
within minutes.”
A week later, Immigra-
tion and Customs Enforce-
ment stopped trying to deport
Ndiaye and released him
from custody. A box with
his belongings was sent to
Diagne’s home.
Diagne said he was afraid
he’d be asked to pay for
his nephew’s medical care,
which he can’t afford.
Mor Ndiaye is so grief-
stricken he hasn’t told his
wife the full extent of their
son’s condition. The couple
said they knew nothing of
assertions in his asylum peti-
tion that he was gay, which is
illegal in Senegal. Other rel-
atives speculated he said as
much to bolster his claim.
Since
Ndiaye
was
detained, the family has
been under increased finan-
cial strain. His father went
to Dakar to find work, and
the family delayed baptizing
Ndiaye’s niece and nephew
because they can’t afford
the customary party to feed
friends and neighbors, which
can cost $150 or more.
It is unclear whether
Ndiaye has any possibility
of recovery or what will hap-
pen to him. Washington has a
December hearing before an
immigration judge and hopes
U.S. authorities eventually
deport Ndiaye.
“My dream is that he
wakes up and goes to Sene-
gal,” Diagne said. “If he is to
die, I want him to die at home
with his parents.”
Larson reported from
Touba, Senegal. Associated
Press writer Ndeye Sene
Mbengue in Touba, Senegal,
contributed to this report.
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