BY VINAYA SAKSENA

CENTRAL FALLS — The federal agency in charge of enforcing immigration laws in the United States has decided not to keep prisoners in the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility, as an investigation continues into the death of a man who had been held there on immigration charges.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency of the Department of Homeland Security, initially said it would let prisoners they had already sent to the facility remain there for the time being.
However, ICE Spokeswoman Paula Grenier confirmed to the Times on Monday that the agency had removed its prisoners from Wyatt, and had decided against sending any more prisoners there until further notice, as the death of former inmate Hiu Lui “Jason” Ng is investigated. 
According to Grenier, an ongoing internal investigation has been under way at ICE into what happened to Ng, an immigrant from Hong Kong who had allegedly overstayed on a tourist’s visa and was arrested years after the fact.
He had reportedly become a computer technician and started a family in the United States.
According to a previous Times report, Ng was ordered deported in 2001, and eventually arrested on immigration charges in New York. What happened afterwards is disputed, but according to Dante Bellini, a spokesman for the Wyatt Detention Facility, Ng arrived at the facility on July 3, 2008.
It has been alleged that Ng’s death, apparently of an advanced stage cancer that had gone undiagnosed, could have been prevented if Wyatt staff had taken his condition more seriously, an allegation Bellini has consistently denied since then. Grenier said that a team of professional detention management experts from the Nakamoto Group had been placed on site at the Wyatt, and that facility officials had been cooperating with the investigation so far.
“We have also ceased having additional detainees at Wyatt while continuing to monitor conditions at the facility,” Grenier said. “We continue to evaluate the (operation) of the facility.”
ICE had initially stated that they would send no more prisoners facing immigration-related charges to the Wyatt, but declined to confirm rumors that the 153 ICE prisoners already there would be removed. However, Grenier has since confirmed to the Times that the relocation of the prisoners was completed Monday evening.
“Most of the detainees have been relocated to other facilities in the New England area; and in some instances, detainees were placed on an Alternative to Detention,” Grenier said in a written statement. “ICE is also taking steps to facilitate ongoing removal cases scheduled with the immigration court.”
Bellini, meanwhile, sent out an extensive statement this weekend, saying that much information regarding Ng’s time in the facility had been misreported in the news media. He indicated that the Wyatt “no control over which detainees come to us or when they arrive,” and that they had “received no information from ICE or any other entity” indicating that detainees would be removed from the facility. He said Wyatt officials found it “surprising” that such a decision had been made, noting that the facility had passed an accreditation audit by the American Correctional Association Commission on Accreditation with a score of 100 percent, making it one of just 1,407 accredited correctional institutions out of 8,500.
“It is unfortunate that so much of the information that has been reported in the past has not been reported accurately,” Bellini said in the statement. “We can only hope that other agencies and organizations are not making policy decisions based on the inaccurate reporting relative to the operational integrity of the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility. We find it surprising that any entity would question the exemplary operational track record that has been achieved at the Wyatt Detention Facility since it opened fifteen years ago.”
Bellini added that, contrary to allegations that had been made, Ng did receive medical attention that was believed to be adequate during his brief stay at the Wyatt Detention Facility. He noted that Ng’s medical records his medical records “were not transferred with him” when he was sent to the Wyatt.
Grenier did not indicate that the decision to remove prisoners from the Wyatt was due to any distrust of the facility’s operations. However, she said she could not provide further information on the reasoning for the decision, except for the ongoing investigation being conducted by the Nakamoto Group, and the simultaneous internal investigation at ICE.
Grenier added that attorneys for the relocated detainees were being notified of their relocations, and that the detainees would be afforded access to telephones to inform their families of the relocation. Grenier also noted that a new hotline had been established to allow family members of the prisoners to determine the location of their relative. The hotline number, she said, is 1-866-341-3858.