U.S. Government Sued Over Treatment of Migrants with Mental Problems

Latin American Herald Tribune: Immigrants with serious mental problems have remained in detention without the system troubling to evaluate their mental condition, according to a class-action suit filed here in U.S. federal court. One of the immigrants represented spent almost five years in the penitentiary system with no charges brought against him and with no way to seek his freedom, the suit says. The legal action was brought by Public Counsel, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, and law firm Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. “In our immigration system there is a great absence of procedures for attending to the mentally retarded,” attorney Talia Inlender of the Public Counsel told Efe. Inlender, who belongs to the group of attorneys that filed the lawsuit, said that the lack of fair treatment for detained immigrants with mental problems “not only ruins the life of the detainees but also of their families.” The suit was sparked by the case of Jose Franco-Gonzalez, a 29-year-old Mexican man who is mentally retarded, whose parents are legal residents and who has pending a petition that will allow him to apply for a permanent residency permit.