Hiu Lui Ng, a 34-year-old Chinese immigrant who had lived in the U.S. for his entire adult life, died of cancer in a Rhode Island detention center on August 6. When Ng, who had been healthy when arrested a year ago, began losing weight and complaining of excruciating pain in April, detention officials accused him of faking it.

Ng’s death and others investigated by the Washington Post in May have lead to increased scrutiny on the conditions of detention facilities. In Congress, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) are sponsoring the Detainee Basic Medical Care Act of 2008, which would set minimum standards of care for detained immigrants.

Explaining the legislation to Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman on Tuesday, Lofgren said,

You know, when you arrest someone, you have to feed them. That’s because they are no longer able to run down the street to McDonald’s on their own. When you arrest someone and they become ill, you need to provide basic medical care, because they can’t run down the street to the clinic or their own physician.

Lofgren appeared on the program along with News 21’s own Renee Feltz. Feltz spoke about her investigative journalism project “The Business of Detention,” which she produced with News 21’s Stokely Baksh this past spring. Feltz and Baksh reprised their partnership for “Meet Juan Crow,” which looked into voter disenfranchisement as a result of Arizona’s Proposition 200.

(AP Photo)