STORM2K

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/ ... 30417/1001

Baby locked up at Honolulu airport dies

Luaipou Futi and a nurse banged on a locked door at Honolulu International Airport Friday morning and begged for medical help for Futi's 14-day-old son, who had flown here from American Samoa for heart surgery and was becoming distressed in the warm room.

According to Futi's attorney, from the other side of the door, the women heard voices telling them to remain calm.

After 30 minutes in the room, Futi, her son, Michael Tony Futi, and the traveling nurse, Arizona Veavea, were released, attorney Rick Fried said.

City paramedics took Michael to Kaiser Permanente's Moanalua Medical Center, but he died later that morning. Emergency Services Department officials said they received a call at 6:10 a.m. and the child was taken to Kaiser Moanalua in critical condition.

Autopsy results are pending.

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This is a disgrace, and the Department of Homeland Security officers who locked this family up in Honolulu despite their approved medical visa, then refused to help them as their baby died, should be charged with criminally negligent homicide. The family is planning to sue the U.S. government for pain and suffering.

The lawsuit will be probably be thrown out. All the US Gov't and DHS has to do is say "national security" and the judge will dismissed it.

The nurse and the baby had papers from DHS in American Samoa okaying their entry to the US. Which raises another question: Since when do you need a visa to travel between US territories and US states? Did I miss something? I mean, sure, you are going to need a US passport to travel on a plane, if you come from certain US states coming in May, but this is messed up. Someone needs to lose a job over this stupidity

Non-military residents of American Samoa aren't US citizens, which doesn't make sense to me, as they have a non-voting at-large representative in the House of Representatives.

I think it's kind of odd that they didn't just let them go. It's not really that big of a deal, or it shouldn't be to them.

Coredesat wrote:Non-military residents of American Samoa aren't US citizens, which doesn't make sense to me, as they have a non-voting at-large representative in the House of Representatives.

ok, I had a whole spiel of questions about the difference between American Samoa, US Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico. But fortunately, I remembered Wikipedia could probably help here.

lurker_from_nc wrote:The lawsuit will be probably be thrown out. All the US Gov't and DHS has to do is say "national security" and the judge will dismissed it.

Which is stupid in itself.

In my experience, you will find no group of unmitigated rude, inconsiderate and total ***holes than US Border,Customs, and DHS officials. Most countries treat citizens returning from abroad or another country with some common courtesy but US citizens can always expect to be treated like criminals when they return. One reason I gave up storm chasing near the Border was because of too many encounters with nasty Border Patrol officers even though the only other life form in my van was my dog.

Steve

DHS is an unmitigated disaster. So much for smaller, more efficient government.

lurker_from_nc wrote:The lawsuit will be probably be thrown out. All the US Gov't and DHS has to do is say "national security" and the judge will dismissed it.

"National Security" or not; if they're OKed for an operation on the baby and they have the paperwork to prove it, DHS had no excuse of detaining them whatsoever.

US Customs can be morons. I was personally harassed by customs returning from Canda back in 1992. I had walked across the Niagria River to view the falls from the Canadian side. There was a lenghty line (I was on foot) at the boarder crossing. Everyone ahead of me were non US citizens. They declared their nationality and were allowed to pass into the USA. When it was my turn I declared myself as an American and was subjected to all kinds of questions and had to show ID all while aliens (not the space kind) were allowed in with only one question. I felt like telling off the customs agent but since I didn't want to risk going to jail decided against it......MGC