Judge orders intervenous fluids for detainee on hunger strike

Kenson Lima, detained at the Port Isabel Detention Center on civil immigration deportation proceedings, has been getting increasingly weak.

Lima started a hunger strike, at least since June 23, at the center near Los Fresnos.

The hunger strike has lasted for roughly a week, spurring the intervention of U.S. Attorney Tim Johnson on Wednesday.

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

In an emergency motion filed in federal court Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Hilda G. Tagle amid Lima's deteriorating health, Johnson said he doesn't know why the 26-year-old man started the strike.

Tagle issued court-ordered medical treatment for Lima the same day, authorizing medical personnel to monitor Lima's vital signs and administer whatever intravenous fluids were deemed necessary to prevent life-threatening dehydration.

Tagle scheduled a follow-up hearing for 10 a.m. Monday.

The Court appointed attorney Jodilyn Marie Goodwin, of Harlingen, to represent Lima's interests. Goodwin declined comment Thursday on both Lima'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 Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Originally from Haiti, Lima became a permanent resident of the U.S. in 2003, but he was convicted in Florida of battery and received a 30-day sentence in jail and 330 days probation, the court record reflects.

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 court documents.

But ICE is seeking Lima's deportation because he committed a crime involving moral turpitude within five years of entry into the U.S., according to the court record.

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

Although not subject to mandatory detention, Lima was originally held without bond. The court record does not reflect why. After Lima was transferred to the Port Isabel Detention Center, his bond was set at $5,000.

Staff began to monitor Lima June 23 and, within the next 72 hours, he didn't eat or drink anything.

A nurse saw him twice daily to monitor his vital signs, but on June 26, he refused to allow his vital signs to be taken, according to Johnson. However, Luna stated that Lima did allow medical staff to take his vital signs that day and that these were in the normal range.

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

On June 28 and thereafter, he refused to allow hospital staff to take his vital signs or to conduct laboratory work.

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 not impaired in judgment or insight.

Johnson further stated that Captain Luzviminda Peredo-Berger, a doctor and the 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.

In connection with the deportation of another detainee Rama Carty to Haiti, the labor and social justice organization Southwest Workers' Union, which has an office in Edinburg, issued a statement on June 4 saying that a hunger strike at the center had continued since late April. The demands claimed lack of due process, medical attention for all detainees, access to legal resources and physical and verbal abuses.

And in March, Amnesty International noted that it released a new report titled "Jailed without Justice" that exposes the immigrant detention system in the U.S. as broken and unnecessarily costly.

According to the report, more than 30,000 immigrants are in detention on any given day in the U.S. and that this is triple the average number detained just ten 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.