When it’s a fact that medical and mental health care in immigration detention is “dangerously inadequate” and grievances commonly get ignored, the circumstances around every death must be investigated. There’s perhaps no more tragic example right now than an immigrant from Honduras who, according to former Georgia chief medical examiner Dr. Kris Sperry, “most likely died an agonizingly slow and excruciatingly painful death” while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention last month:
According to previously unreported court documents reviewed by The Daily Beast, the mother of an undocumented immigrant who died of bacterial meningitis is preparing for civil action related to his death. On June 4, Honduran native Martina Blasina Romero petitioned a federal judge in the Southern District of Texas to authorize depositions of the people who were held with her son, Ronal Francisco Romero, and know about the health collapse he experienced in his last days.
Romero was arrested on May 9 at the border and was initially detained in a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) holding facility for six days before being transferred to ICE. What is known is that he first began to get sick in the CBP holding facility, and that ICE eventually took him to Valley Baptist Medical Center. What isn’t known is if he was being adequately treated. What is known is that he would be dead just a week after he was first arrested. What’s also known is that while in immigration custody, “his mental deterioration would have become immediately obvious to any observer”:
“Based on the information currently available, Dr. Sperry concludes that Mr. Romero would have been intensely, visibly ill and in severe pain for several days prior to his admission to VBMC on the afternoon of May 15, 2018,” the filing continued. “Mr. Romero’s observable symptoms of illness would have included intense ear and head pain stemming from the pressure caused by the bacterial infection and growing build-up of pus in his right middle ear; clammy appearance and skin discoloration; fever; dehydration; and potential nausea and vomiting.”
Romero suffered, and it should have been visible to anyone around him paying attention, including his fellow detainees. Now, his mother is preparing to sue in order to try to find them and get answers regarding the death of her son.
As Detention Watch Network’s Silky Shah said, “the thing that’s been really clear is that there are consistent delays in medical care that then lead to a death, meaning that if things were addressed immediately then the death could be preventable.” Just days ago, another detainee and asylum-seeker, Roxsana Hernández, died while under ICE custody. Like Romero, what isn’t clear are the conditions that Hernández was under during her detention:
ICE said she “was admitted to Cibola General Hospital with symptoms of pneumonia, dehydration and complications associated with HIV,” but was she was being treated prior to going to the hospital? “LGBTQ people in detention face verbal and physical abuse; prolonged solitary confinement; and the withholding of critical health care needs, such as hormone therapy or HIV medication,” according to research.
"We are out here to demand explanations,” Gabriela Hernandez, one of her supporters, said in a protest outside an ICE facility in New Mexico. “Because every single time, ICE has not explained how or why this keeps happening. The conditions are pretty bad. And being transgender, LGBTQ, undocumented, it’s even worse." Romero’s loved ones and advocates also are in search of answers:
Romero’s mother’s lawyers are now fighting time: looking to talk to the people familiar with Romero’s condition before they become difficult to find—deported, moved to far-flung detention centers, or released into the United States on their own recognizance. The lawyers are asking for CBP and ICE to answer questions about which people were housed with Romero. With that information, they hope to ask those people how he appeared as his health deteriorated.
They have notified DHS and ICE lawyers, as well as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, of the petition’s filing. The lawyers are looking to have a hearing within three weeks on whether or not they can depose the people who were detained with Romero.
“This is an agency that increasingly is not interested in the health and welfare of people in its custody,” said Bob Libal of Grassroots Leadership, “and it’s also an entity that has expanded so rapidly over the last 15 years that providing even the most basic of safety for people who are in its custody is something that is difficult.”