ACLU Agrees to Represent Family of Chinese Detainee Who Died at Wyatt Detention Facility

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: media@aclu.org

PROVIDENCE, RI – The Rhode Island ACLU today announced that it has agreed to provide legal representation to the family of Hiu Liu (“Jason”) Ng, the 34-year-old Chinese detainee who died last month while in the custody of immigration officials at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls. The case will be handled by RI ACLU cooperating attorney John J. McConnell, Jr. of the law firm of Motley Rice, LLC.

Attorney McConnell is in the process of gathering information about Ng’s death and investigating any potential legal claims. The investigation is projected to take a few months, and any lawsuit is not expected to be filed until that investigation is completed.

RI ACLU executive director Steven Brown said today: “Mr. Ng’s tragic death highlights many serious questions about both the operation of this country’s immigration detention system and the adequacy of medical care provided to inmates in that system. We are hopeful that our investigation, and any legal action that may follow from it, will ultimately provide some answers to those questions and help foster meaningful changes to that system in order to avert similar tragedies. His family deserves no less.”