Brownsville judge orders medical intervention for detainee on hunger strike

BROWNSVILLE — Kenson Lima has been getting increasingly weak.

Lima has been on a hunger strike since at least June 23 while detained at the Port Isabel Detention Center near Los Fresnos pending civil immigration deportation proceedings.

But the roughly weeklong period of fasting has taken a toll the man's health, prompting U.S. Attorney Tim Johnson to intervene Wednesday by filing an emergency motion before U.S. District Judge Hilda G. Tagle.

Johnson states in the motion that the 26-year-old's justification for the hunger strike remains unclear but that the man has been refusing food and water despite being advised of the health effects of such action.

"Mr. Lima fell while taking a shower" on June 27, Johnny Luna, an officer at the detention center, states in the federal court records. "He was too weak to support his own weight."

Tagle responded to the emergency motion Wednesday by ordering medical treatment for Lima that same day. She authorized medical personnel to monitor the man's vital signs and administer whatever intravenous fluids were deemed necessary to prevent life-threatening dehydration.

The judge scheduled a follow-up hearing for 10 a.m. Monday and appointed Harlingen attorney Jodilyn Marie Goodwin to represent Lima's interests.

Goodwin declined comment Thursday on the detainee's medical condition and said she didn't know why he initiated the hunger strike.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security operates the detention center and Lima is under the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Originally from Haiti, he became a permanent resident of the United States in 2003 but was later convicted in Florida of battery and received a 30-day sentence in jail and 330 days probation, the court record shows.

ICE became aware of Lima while he was in jail in Florida pending charges of aggravated battery that were later dismissed, according to the court record. The date of conviction and when ICE encountered him are not provided in the court documents.

The agency is seeking his deportation on the grounds that he committed a crime involving moral turpitude within five years of entry into the United States according to the court record.

ICE initiated removal proceedings in Florida on March 17 and Lima was brought to the Port Isabel Detention Center on May 9, the public record shows.

Although not subject to mandatory detention, he was originally held without bond. The court record does not reflect why.

Detention center staff began to monitor Lima on June 23 and noted that he refused to eat or drink anything during the next 72 hours.

A nurse began seeing him twice daily to check his vital signs, but on June 26 he refused to submit to further monitoring, according to Johnson.

Luna, however, reports in the court documents that Lima did allow medical staff to take his vital signs that day and that they were in within normal range.

After he fell June 27, he was taken to the detention center's medical unit and then to Valley Baptist Medical Center-Harlingen.

On June 28 and thereafter, he refused to allow hospital staff to take his vital signs or conduct lab testing for him

Lima "has been counseled on the medical consequences of his hunger strike such as dehydration and death, but continues to refuse the three meals he is offered each day, as well as water and nutritional supplements," Johnson stated in court records.

Psychiatrist Dr. Corey Roman found Lima to be mentally competent, with no evidence of depression and no impairment of insight or judgment.

Capt. Luzviminda Peredo-Berger, a doctor who serves as the detention center's clinical director, believes the hunger strike places Lima's health in danger by creating a risk of dehydration, kidney damage, seizures, cardiac damage and even death, Johnson further states in the court filings.

Lima's hunger strike is bringing further attention to an immigrant detention system that has already come under criticism recently.

Southwest Workers Union, a group that advocates for immigrants' rights and maintains an office in Edinburg, issued a statement on June 4 saying that a hunger strike had been ongoing at the detention center since late April. Rama Carty, a detainee facing proceedings for deportation to Haiti, claimed detainees were denied due process, medical attention and legal resources and were subjected to physical and verbal abuse.

And the global social justice group Amnesty International states in a report released in March that the nation's immigrant detention system is broken and unnecessarily costly.

According to the report, more than 30,000 immigrants are in detention in the United States on any given day - triple the average number detained just 10 years ago.

"Immigrants can be detained for months or years without any meaningful judicial review despite international human rights standards requiring such review," the report states.

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Emma Perez-Treviño is a reporter for The Brownsville Herald.