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U.S. NEWS Friday 1 June 2018

Transgender migrant dies while in U.S. custody

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN medical care while in
and ANITA SNOW federal custody.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — She was turned over on
The death of a transgender May 13 to Immigration and
woman while in the Customs Enforcement,
custody of U.S. Immigration which oversees immigration
and Customs Enforcement detention centers. Both
has prompted advocates agencies are part of the
to demand that LGBTQ Department of Homeland
migrant detainees be freed Security.
until their cases are heard. ICE says all detainees
The outcry came even as get medical, dental and
President Donald Trump mental health screening
and others increasingly within 12 hours of arriving
criticize the practice at a detention facility.
known as "catch and Detainees also have access
release" in which migrants to 24-hour emergency
are freed while subject to care.
deportation. Immigration authorities
Federal officials are have said Hernandez was
awaiting the results of admitted May 17 to Cibola
an autopsy to determine General Hospital in Grants,
what caused the death of New Mexico. She was
the 33-year-old Honduran transferred later that day to
migrant Friday at an In this May 29, 2018 photo, Roxana Hernandez a transgender woman, left, talks with her friends the Albuquerque hospital,
Albuquerque hospital. behind the community center called El Caracol, where legal aid was being offered to migrants of where she remained in the
The woman was admitted the caravan by volunteer US lawyers in Tijuana, Mexico. intensive care unit until she
after showing symptoms of Associated Press was pronounced dead.
pneumonia, dehydration Hospital staff said the
and complications the transgender unit. The letter asked the York-based Immigration preliminary cause of death
associated with HIV. She was the sixth detainee federal agency to use Equality, a national LGBTQ was cardiac arrest.
Activists identified the to die in ICE custody since its discretion to release migrant rights group. Immigration authorities
migrant as Roxana October 2017. migrants considered at Anandrea Molina, say that between 2005
Hernandez and said Nineteen members of high risk for abuse so they president of Organización and 2009, Hernandez
she was part of a highly Congress on Wednesday are safe throughout their Latina de Trans en Texas, twice illegally entered the
publicized caravan of sent a letter to Secretary immigration proceedings. said: "The community, now U.S. and was allowed to
Central American asylum of Homeland Security The California-based more than ever, needs voluntarily return to Mexico
seekers who traveled Kirstjen Nielsen, expressing Transgender Law Center to organize to protect because she claimed
through Mexico to the U.S. concerns about how and other groups also issued our most vulnerable, in Mexican nationality.
border at San Diego last LBGTQ migrants are housed statements demanding particular transgender Central America migrants
month. The effort drew the and whether they are that transgender people immigrant women who are often claim to be
attention of Trump, who protected from abuse. not be detained by surrounded by violence on Mexicans so they won't be
tweeted that they shouldn't "These individuals, immigration authorities a daily basis." transported back to their
be allowed to enter the U.S. particularly transgender while their cases are being Organizers from Pueblo Sin country of origin.
Authorities listed the women, are extremely reviewed. Fronteras said Hernandez In 2014, Hernandez illegally
woman's name as Jeffry vulnerable to abuse, "Immigration and Customs presented herself to U.S. re-entered the U.S. a third
Hernandez when she including sexual assault, Enforcement clearly Customs and Border time and was arrested and
was taken into custody in while in custody," said cannot detain transgender Protection officers at the removed. Authorities say.
San Diego. She was later the letter signed by U.S. women safely, and San Ysidro port of entry in Authorities also say she was
transferred to El Paso, Texas, Rep. Kathleen M. Rice, therefore should not detain California on May 9 and convicted of theft in 2006
and then to a detention a Democrat from New transgender women at asked for asylum. The and of prostitution and
center in New Mexico York, and 18 other U.S. all," said Aaron C. Morris, group questioned whether other charges in 2009. Both
where she was housed in lawmakers. executive director of New she received adequate cases were in Texas.q