The family of Roxsana Hernandez, a transgender woman who died in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility, is suing the federal government amid ongoing litigation regarding her 2018 passing.
Hernandez, a 33-year-old refugee from Honduras, died 16 days after crossing the border at San Ysidro on May 9 as part of a migrant caravan. She was transferred to the transgender unit at the Cibola County Correctional Center in Milan, New Mexico before being taken to the hospital the next day, according to the New York Times. Following 9 days in an intensive care unit, she passed away after reportedly sustaining a heart attack, with medical investigators classifying her “manner of death as natural.”
Last year, the Transgender Law Center (TLC) filed a lawsuit on her family’s behalf alleging misconduct on the part of immigration officials. An independent autopsy commissioned by TLC alleged that she experienced extreme hydration “over multiple days with no medical evaluation or treatment, until she was gravely ill” and suffered complications related to her HIV diagnosis.
Dr. Kris Sperry, a forensic pathologist, also recorded “deep hemorrhaging of the soft tissues and muscles over her ribs” that indicated abuse, as the Times reported.
While the initial lawsuit named 5 parties responsible for Hernandez’s care as defendants in the case — CoreCivic, LaSalle Corrections Transport, Global Precision Systems, Management & Training Corporation, and TransCor America — the federal government was added to the suit on Wednesday.
Dale Melchert, a TLC attorney, said in a statement that the implication of federal authorities reflects that fact that “every U.S. agency that Roxsana interacted with on her journey caused her harm and ultimately failed her.”
“ICE had an obligation to provide care to Roxsana, a responsibility that they completely abdicated, and instead discriminated against her based on her gender identity, HIV status, and national origin,” Melchert said in a statement first cited by the New York Daily News. “[The Department of Homeland Security] cannot safely detain transgender people, and we cannot afford another lost life. DHS should end trans detention now.”
TLC claims these failures include a refusal to “provide adequate medical care, sufficient food, water, access to a restroom, and an opportunity to sleep even though Roxsana was visibly and symptomatically ill in blatant violation of U.S. law.”
ICE has yet to comment publicly on the lawsuit, citing ongoing litigation, but the case has attracted national attention regarding widespread allegations of negligence throughout Hernandez’s detention. According to BuzzFeed News, ICE deleted surveillance footage that could have directly indicated whether her passing was the result of mistreatment.
While officials have claimed the footage is customarily deleted after 30 days, the legal team representing the deceased’s family has said ICE should have saved the materials in anticipation of legal action.
“ICE and CoreCivic have consistently denied wrongdoing and stated that they in effect provided Roxsana with all the health care she needed,” Andrew Free, an attorney with TLC, told BuzzFeed in 2019. “The video would be essential and frankly irreplaceable evidence of whether that was true.”
A separate investigation conducted by the publication discovered that at least 40 immigrants died in ICE facilities from 2017 to 2020. This included a detainee who had been denied cancer treatment for a week while held in solitary confinement.
Hernandez’s family hopes that the lawsuit provides some measure of justice for her, as well as others allegedly abused in ICE custody.
“My sister came to the U.S. in search of safety and protection from the horrific violence she experienced as a trans woman in Honduras, and what she found instead was abuse, discrimination, and neglect,” said her sister, Jenny Hernández Rodríquez, said in a statement cited by the Daily News.
“The tragic fact that she is no longer with us is a direct result of that discrimination and neglect,” she continued.
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