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A transgender woman who died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention at a privately owned detention center was probably physically abused there, according to an autopsy report released Monday and died after several days of serious, untreated dehydration.
Roxsana Hernández Rodriguez, a 33-year-old transgender woman from Honduras, died on May 25, nine days after being transferred to a transgender women's unit at the Cibola County Correctional Center in New Mexico, which is operated under contract by CoreCivic. , the second largest private penitentiary company in the United States.
"There she developed severe diarrhea and vomiting over the course of several days," writes coroner Kris Sperry, "and finally was emergently hospitalized, then transported to Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she is remained seriously ill until his death. "
The autopsy concluded that the cause of death of Rodriguez Hernández was the most likely "serious dehydration complications superimposed on HIV infection", which made his sensitive to the physiological effects of untreated dehydration .
"According to the observations of other inmates who were with Ms. Hernández Rodriguez, diarrhea and vomiting episodes persisted for days without medical evaluation or treatment, until she was seriously ill" Sperry writes.
Sperry's autopsy, the second conducted on Hernández Rodriguez's body after his death, also has evidence of physical abuse, with "deep bruises" on his hands and abdomen, evidence blunt trauma "indicative of strokes, and / or kicks, and possible striking with blunt object". An accompanying diagram depicted blue long, thin along the back Hernández Rodriguez and on the sides, as well as a vast hemorrhage on Hernández Rodriguez's right and left wrists, Dr. Sperry found was "typical of the wounds handcuff ".
Andrew Free, a lawyer representing her family, told The Daily Beast that her treatment in the custody of ICE went far beyond negligence.
"She has traveled thousands of miles fleeing persecution and torture at home, but has been neglected and tortured in the for-profit cages of this country," said Free.
A spokesman for the ICE did not answer a list of questions as to whether requests for medical care were denied at any time during the detention of Hernández Rodriguez, under the authority from which this decision would have been taken, or who at the Cibola establishment had access to batons and handcuffs as well as access to Hernández Rodriguez.
At the time of her death, ICE stated that she was admitted to the hospital with "symptoms of pneumonia, dehydration and complications associated with HIV," and that "full medical care is provided detainees currently arrive and throughout the entire stay. "
In response to similar questions, CoreCivic Public Affairs Director Amanda Gilchrist told The Daily Beast that "we take the health and well-being of those entrusted to our care very seriously" and are "engaged to provide a safe environment for transgender prisoners. "
CoreCivic, a publicly traded company whose motto is "Better Public Good", operates more than 65 US prisons and detention centers.
Even before his detention in New Mexico, Hernández Rodriguez had taken an extremely difficult route to the United States. In an interview with BuzzFeed News a month before her death, Hernández Rodriguez said that she decided to flee Honduras after she was raped by four members of the MS-13 gang, which she was infected with HIV.
"Trans people in my neighborhood are killed and cut into pieces and then thrown into sacks of potatoes," said Hernández Rodriguez. "I did not want to come to Mexico, I wanted to stay in Honduras but I could not … They kill transgender people in Honduras. I'm afraid of that. "
LGBT people in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras are particularly vulnerable to violence and persecution, as well as during their asylum-seeking journeys. The US government has expressed skepticism about the veracity of these claims, as well as the number of LGBT people traveling in caravans bound for the border. During a conference call with reporters last week, a senior DHS official told reporters that the caravans have pushed LGBT migrants "to the front of the caravan in an effort to get coverage of friendly public relations. "
Hernández Rodriguez, known as "Roxy" to his friends, decided to travel more than 2,000 miles with 1300 other migrants hoping to seek asylum in the United States, make a six-week trip through Mexico organized by Pueblo Sin Fronteras.
After arriving at the US border and asking for asylum at the San Ysidro port from the US-Mexico border, near San Diego, she was taken into custody on 9 may.
After five days of detention, she was transferred to the Cibola facility, which houses a "Pod" dedicated to transgender women, Which ICE is managed by Says medical staff and holding in a training "best practices for the care of transgender people. Less than three weeks after arriving in the United States, she was dead.
