Aug. 17, 2009 (United Press International) -- The Obama administration said Monday the deaths of 10 people in immigration detention during the past six years went unreported.
The deaths were either overlooked or were left off an official list of detainee deaths provided to Congress in March, The New York Times reported.
In addition to disclosing the 10 deaths, the administration also announced the death of an Ethiopian detainee Friday following an Aug. 3 suicide attempt. Huluf Guangule Negusse, 24, was being held in the Wakulla County correctional facility near Tallahassee, Fla.
The list of detainee deaths is known within Immigration and Customs Enforcement as the "death roster," the newspaper said. The additions bring to 104 the number of people put on the list since October 2003.
Administration officials began searching records last month after the discovery that the death of detainee Felix Franklin Rodriguez-Torres, 36, of Ecuador, had gone unreported. That discovery arose out of a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Rodriguez-Torres died of cancer Jan. 18, 2007, two months after he was sent to a for-profit immigration jail operated by the Corrections Corp. of America (NYSE:CXW) in Arizona, the Times said.
