Transgender asylum seeker dies after six weeks of detention at ICE

A transgender woman from El Salvador who sought asylum in the United States died Saturday in a hospital in Texas, four days after her release, officials and lawyers announced.

Johana Medina Leon, 25, has complained of chest pains and was taken to the Del Sol Medical Center in El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday, the Immigration and Immigration Bureau said. customs. On the same day, ICE announced that she was awaiting parole. Medina Leon died on the first day of the month of pride.

"This is another unfortunate example of someone who enters the United States illegally with an untreated and untreated health problem," said Corey A. Price, director of the ICE Field Operations and Removal Operations Office. in El Paso.

Allegra Love, executive director of the Sante Fe Dreamers Project, a non-profit organization that provides free legal services to immigrants, said that Medina Leon had nothing "illegal" when she was fled to the United States in accordance with the protocol of the Department of Homeland Security.

"She has not violated any law emanating from the United States to seek political asylum," Love said.

Medina Leon, known to her friends as Joa, has been in the United States since mid-April.. On May 18, Medina Leon received a report of credible and positive fear, said ICE. Lawyers told NBC News that Leon was seeking asylum in the United States as a transgender woman.

Medina Leon was detained at the Otero County Processing Center, a private detention center in New Mexico, where the ACLU and the Santa Fe Dreamer Project have recently alleged abuse and "abusive conditions" for LGBTQ immigrants. In a letter to ICE, the groups stated that "ICE's practices in Otero have created a dangerous environment" for LGBTQ detainees in Otero.

Diversidad Sin Fronteras, an LGBTQ refugee rights group, said in an article posted on Facebook that Medina Leon had pleaded with the ICE to seek medical care. She "became extremely sick and unconscious," said the group.

The death of Medina Leon comes almost exactly one year after the death of Roxsana Hernandez, a transgender migrant from Honduras, following complications of AIDS imprisoned by ICE.