The Transgender Law Center and the law office of R. Andrew Free have filed a Federal Tort Claim Act complaint holding the federal government responsible for the death of Roxsana Hernández, a transgender asylum-seeker from Honduras, while in custody last year. Officials, the complaint says, “failed to provide her with adequate medical care despite the fact that she was visibly ill from the time she was taken into [Customs and Border Protection] custody until her death.”
It lists nearly half a dozen charges, including wrongful death, gross negligence, and medical malpractice, relating to Hernández’s death while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in May 2018, a statement from TLC and the law office of R. Andrew Free said. They allege that not only was Hernández first denied critical medical help, when she finally was hospitalized, ICE “kept Roxsana shackled even after treating medical providers medically paralyzed her and when she first went into cardiac arrest.”
ICE has jailed a record number of transgender people, and in “egregiously inadequate” conditions that jeopardize their health, safety, and lives, TLC said in a separate complaint earlier this year. DHS, the group said, “has already received countless reports of LGBTQ, [people living with HIV] individuals’ experiences with verbal, sexual and physical violence, medical negligence, inhumane housing conditions, and overuse of solitary confinement in both public and private detention centers.”
Surveillance video from the time Hernández was jailed at the Cibola County Correctional Center in New Mexico could provide some answers, but ICE officials deleted this footage even though they had been clearly instructed to preserve it—and even though rules say officials are required to preserve records in case of court litigation. "It's completely ridiculous to suggest they didn't know they were supposed to preserve critical video footage—the most basic thing you do when there's some type of investigation, or you expect to be sued," said TLC’s Dale Melchert told BuzzFeed News.
Other documents released as part of the complaint reveal officers appeared more preoccupied with how Hernández got to the U.S. versus what dangers she faced in Honduras. She was raped by gang members there, but during her initial asylum interview, “the DHS officer veers away from engaging with Roxsana’s reasons for migrating and instead focuses on how she reached the U.S.-Mexico border,” the complaint said. There’s a clear reason why: she was a member of the so-called “caravan” demonized over and over by Donald Trump up until the 2018 midterms.
She deserved a chance. “The U.S. government and their agents made decisions that contributed to Roxsana’s death,” said Úmi Vera of Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement in a statement. “We’ve heard from our members who’ve survived being incarcerated in detention centers that the inadequate care that Roxsana received is similar to the lack of medical attention they received, even when requested through formal procedures. Many of them feel lucky to be alive. All of these federal agencies and private prisons must be held accountable to prevent the deaths of other trans and queer migrants.”