Family of woman who died in immigration custody demands full release of video
The family of a Sri Lankan woman who died at an immigration detention facility in central Japan has filed another lawsuit demanding the full release of surveillance footage taken while she was in custody.
Wishma Sandamali died at the facility run by the Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau in Nagoya City on March 6, 2021 after complaining of ill health. She was 33-years-old.
In 2022, her family filed a lawsuit with the Nagoya District Court seeking state redress. The state released as evidence about five hours of surveillance footage out of a total of 295 hours that was recorded.
In February, the family requested the Nagoya bureau to release all the footage. But the bureau refused, saying the footage contains security information and releasing it might undermine operations to maintain order.
Her family filed the lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court on Tuesday.
Wishma's sister, Poornima, said the footage has not been fully released after four years. She said the footage belongs to her sister and family, and not the state.
The Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau said it will study the lawsuit and take appropriate action.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NHK
29 minutes ago
- NHK
Chinese tourist stabbed in Kyoto, assailant still at large
Japanese police say a Chinese tourist was stabbed on a street in Kyoto on Friday before the assailant fled the scene. The attack on the 37-year-old Chinese man occurred at around 8 p.m. in Kyoto's Shimogyo Ward. It is believed the assailant stabbed the man with a sharp object. The victim was reportedly conscious when he arrived at the hospital where he was found to have suffered non-life threatening injuries to his upper body. The man was visiting Kyoto on a sightseeing trip, and apparently got into a quarrel with the assailant after eating at a nearby restaurant. Police say the assailant measured about 1.75 meters tall, and was wearing glasses and a white T-shirt. The assailant and victim reportedly did not know each other. They are searching for the attacker on suspicion of attempted murder. The attack took place near Kiyomizu-gojo station on the Keihan Railway Line where there is a concentration of hotels and condominiums.
NHK
5 hours ago
- NHK
Man mistakenly deported to El Salvador returned to US to face charges
A man who was mistakenly deported by US President Donald Trump's administration to El Salvador has been returned to the United States to face criminal charges. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran, was forcibly removed from the US in March as part of Trump's immigration policy. He was held in a prison in El Salvador. Democrats criticized the deportation, saying it disregarded due process and Abrego Garcia's constitutional rights. The US Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return, citing "administrative error." But the Trump administration refused to comply with the order, triggering repercussions. US Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Friday that the man was returned to the US and was indicted in May by a grand jury in Tennessee for smuggling immigrants and other charges. Democratic lawmakers welcomed Abrego Garcia's return. They are condemning the Trump administration for flouting the Supreme Court and the Constitution. Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Friday that the decisions made by the Department of Justice have been very good. He said, "Show everybody how horrible this guy is." Trump has made immigration policy a key theme of his administration. But Americans' views are divided on his actions.
Japan Times
5 hours ago
- Japan Times
Rifles, stun grenades, armored trucks in ICE raids spur tensions
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is intensifying efforts to round up migrants. It's also doing so with increasingly aggressive tactics. In scenes from San Diego to Massachusetts, agents outfitted with bullet-resistant vests and often displaying military-style rifles are shown in social media videos and photos being escorted along city streets by armored vehicles. A clip from Rhode Island shows an agent standing in a truck's open hatch, manning a rifle. The operations led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, often joined by local law enforcement, have coincided with a dramatic increase in arrests of people for running afoul of immigration laws — with ICE reporting more than 1,600 daily apprehensions. That's more than double the 630 average of recent weeks and a roughly 450% increase over typical numbers during former U.S. President Joe Biden's last year in office. The latest figures are still barely half of the administration's goal, but the White House is rapidly moving forward with efforts to remove legal obstacles to deportations while ramping up prison capacity and enforcement capability. In the meantime, it's deploying social-media videos with quick edits and throbbing techno beats, made-for-TV moments to get attention. "This is not normal,' said David Shirk, a political science professor and expert on U.S.-Mexico border issues at the University of San Diego. "It is a response to what has been a long-standing problem that is greatly exaggerated and intended to convey a sense of shock and awe.' Critics have long decried the increasing militarization of U.S. police forces, which took off after equipment used in the Iraq war was handed over to state and local forces. In the case of ICE's immigration raids, Shirk and others say the tactics aren't only over the top, they risk further inflaming already tense situations, making it more dangerous for the targets, bystanders and the agents themselves. They say the raids and disproportionate to the threat and seem designed to maximize optics for Trump and his supporters, while demonizing migrants who lack legal status but are otherwise law abiding. ICE officials are unapologetic about the shows of force, saying agents must take maximum precautions to protect themselves from dangerous gang members and other criminals. And if the high-profile raids encourage other migrants without documentation to leave, all the better. In social media posts, ICE routinely urges people to avoid arrest by self deporting. In San Diego last week, an operation targeting workers at the popular Italian restaurant Buona Forchetta included agents dressed in camouflage, helmeted and masked, and some carrying rifles. It drew as many as 250 spontaneous protesters who shouted abuse at the agents. Eventually officials deployed stun grenades to disperse the crowd. The agency declined to specify the exact number of arrests or detail any criminal records of those taken into custody. "The officers took appropriate action and followed their training to use the minimum amount of force necessary,' Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Homeland Security department, said in a statement. "In large part due to protests like this, our ICE officers are facing a 413% increase in assaults while carrying out arrests.' Operations across Massachusetts over the past month resulted in the arrests of nearly 1,500 people for immigration violations, more than half of whom the government said had criminal records in the U.S. or abroad. Heavily armed and masked officers were involved in many of the apprehensions. In raids in Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard last month, about 40 people were arrested and moved out of the area on a Coast Guard patrol boat. In February, agents in Phoenix used an armored vehicle equipped with a battering ram when they arrested a 61-year-old man. At the time, the agency described the arrest as part of a routine operation and said the man had been deported several times and had multiple criminal convictions. "The more police dress up in military gear and arm themselves with military equipment, the more likely they are to see themselves as at war with people, and that is not what we want,' said Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy project manager for policing at the American Civil Liberties Union. An expanded show of force by policing agencies can "lead to unnecessary violence that leads to unnecessary harm,' she added. Protesters gather around the Los Angeles Federal Building following multiple detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in downtown Los Angeles on Friday. | REUTERS Todd Lyons, the acting head of ICE, this week defended agents' actions, including wearing masks, saying it was for their protection as the public grows increasingly hostile toward their work. "I am sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I'm not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line, and their family's lives on the line, because people don't like what immigration enforcement is,' Lyons said during a press conference. He cited incidents of people identifying agents and then harassing them and their family members online, sometimes posting children's photos and other private information. The agency has made tens of thousands of arrests and deported tens of thousands of foreigners since Trump took office. But top administration aren't happy with the pace. In a tense meeting last month with dozens of top ICE officials Stephen Miller, a top aide to Trump and an architect of the the administration's hard-line policies, said arrests should average a minimum of 3,000 a day. Many of those senior agents and officers left the meeting worried they would lose their jobs if the quota isn't met, according to a person familiar with the private discussion. The growing frequency of operations — and the gear agents are toting — can be unsettling to community members who aren't accustomed to such broad enforcement operations, according to Jerry Robinette, a former ICE agent who led the agency's Homeland Security Investigations office in San Antonio until he retired in 2012. "They are in areas where people aren't used to seeing them and some folks are taken aback by what they are seeing, taken aback by the show of force,' said Robinette, adding that it's hard to second guess the show of force in San Diego without more details. "Without knowing what the underlying crime that they were concerned about, its really hard to say this was an overkill.' Robinette and others said raids involving heavily armed and helmeted agents aren't unheard of in HSI operations. He said a more robust presence is often used in cases involving serious criminal organizations, including drug trafficking networks. In Warwick, Rhode Island, last month, a heavily armed contingent of officers was deployed to arrest a Guatemalan man who had evaded arrest during an April traffic stop. In that incident, according to federal court records, the suspect flailed about and wiggled away from arresting officers, leading one to twist her ankle and ultimately fracture her leg. The suspect was charged with assault, resisting and impeding a law enforcement officer after his May arrest. He is being held in federal custody, court records show. In San Diego, there's been no clarity on who was targeted by the ICE raid at the Italian restaurant. The tactics raised alarms from local officials. "Militarized immigration raids in our neighborhoods erode trust, destabilize families and undermine the constitutional right to due process,' County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer said in a statement posted to X. City Councilman Sean Elo-Rivera posted a photo of the restaurant raid to Instagram and wrote the word "terrorists' over the image. Others have described ICE agents as a "gestapo.' Lyons, in an interview with Fox News, said such descriptions of his officers were "just plain disgusting.' Elo-Rivera said he stands by his comments, and described the show of force as unnecessary and intended to instill fear. "It would scare anyone who saw them,' Elo-Rivera said. "Nobody is safer as a result of the Trump administration attempting to enforce immigration laws.'
