A green card holder currently in a Texas immigration detention center has begged to be deported due to chronic pain, even offering to pay for his own flight out.
Deon Lewis, 43, has spent most of his life in the United States on a valid green card for over 30 years. Born in Trinidad, Lewis is battling a chronic sickle cell disease, but told the outlet that the detention center failed to provide the necessary medical treatment.
“It’s only a matter of time before something really bad happens to me,” Lewis said, according to the Houston Chronicle. “Why haven’t I been deported yet? I’ve been begging these people to deport me.”
Lewis was detained in Louisiana before being transferred to Houston on June 30, likely for a crime he committed in 2002, where he pled guilty to possessing cocaine.
A press release from 2020 shows that Lewis was arrested again for the possession of marijuana, cocaine, and a gun. Lewis has since served probation.
“I’ve been in this country since I was 11 years old. Yeah, I did something wrong,” he said. “Since then, I went on to start my own business. I’ve got five children that I take care of. I’ve never been on child support for any of them.”
Lewis agreed to a stipulated order of removal in mid-July, relinquishing his rights to appeal his deportation or have a judge review his case. Lewis is so desperate he and his wife, Roxanne Lewis, have offered to pay for his own flight to Trinidad
“And that’s without me even knowing what I’m going into. I just want to get out of here so I can get medical attention,” Lewis said.
Lewis’ attorney Rina Gandhi told the Daily Beast in a statement that “every day of continued detention prolongs his unnecessary, cruel and unusual suffering, while ICE continues to deny him essential medical care for his diagnosed sickle cell disease.”
“Deon has been clear and consistent in communicating his symptoms and medical needs to ICE,” said Gandhi. “Instead of providing the needed care, ICE has left him without even basic pain medication. As a result, he has endured excruciating pain, vomiting, and episodes of losing consciousness.”
According to an ICE spokesperson who spoke to the Chronicle, the agency conducts a review process before immigrants are deported, and since Lewis lost his passport, his travel documents must be obtained from Trinidad and Tobago officials.
“Prior to carrying out an alien’s removal, there are numerous checks that must be performed to verify that the alien does not have any outstanding criminal warrants for their arrest and to make sure they do not have any other administrative holds that need to be addressed,” the statement said.
“He is the definition of a threat to public safety and will remain in ICE custody until his removal can be carried out,” said the ICE spokesperson.
However, Gandhi told the Chronicle that in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case, Garcia did not have a passport but ICE still deported him against his will.
Roxanne Lewis told the outlet that she brought her husband’s prescription to ICE in hopes of expediting his care, but Lewis said that meeting with the detention center’s medical staff has been abysmal.
“They decide whether they take you to see the nurse or doctor or whatever. But even when I do that and I go to the doctor they basically say there is nothing they can do,” he said. “They were giving me Ibuprofen then they stopped.”
Lewis has been held in ICE custody since June 17, according to a GoFundMe post started by his wife, who is fundraising to cover the legal fees.
“Deon… has had two lung surgeries due to Pneumothorax, which hinders him each day and is on medication throughout the day, everyday,” the statement read. “What is being done to my husband [and] many others isn’t humane. ICE is not treating the people that are being held right.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
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