A transgender woman who was in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for nine days died of untreated dehydration. Her symptoms apparently were ignored until she was “emergently hospitalized.”
Roxsana Hernández Rodriguez, a Honduran woman fleeing gang violence and gang rape was seeking asylum in the U.S. She was 33 years old. She was held at a privately operated detention center, and “was likely physically abused there,” according to the autopsy report released Monday, The Daily Beast reports.
The private prison facility at the Cibola County Correctional Center in New Mexico is operated by CoreCivic, the second-largest private prison company in the U.S. CoreCivic, co-founded by a former GOP chairman, operates more than 65 facilities and has come under fire for poor staffing and extensive lobbying efforts.
“There she developed severe diarrhea and vomiting over the course of several days,” the autopsy states, “and finally was emergently hospitalized, then transported to Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she remained critically ill until her death.”
“According to observations of other detainees who were with Ms. Hernández Rodriguez, the diarrhea and vomiting episodes persisted over multiple days with no medical evaluation or treatment, until she was gravely ill,” forensic pathologist Kris Sperry wrote.
The autopsy “also found evidence of physical abuse, with ‘deep bruising’ on her hands and abdomen, evidence of blunt-force trauma ‘indicative of blows, and/or kicks, and possible strikes with blunt object.’ An accompanying diagram illustrated long, thin bruises along Hernández Rodriguez’s back and sides, as well as extensive hemorrhaging on Hernández Rodriguez’s right and left wrists, which Dr. Sperry found were ‘typical of handcuff injuries.'”
Hernández Rodriguez had told Buzzfeed, months before her death, “she was walking home when MS-13 gang members started screaming ‘We don’t want you in this neighborhood, you fucking faggot’ at her before gang-raping her.”
“Four of them raped me and as a result I got HIV,” Hernandez told BuzzFeed News. “Trans people in my neighborhood are killed and chopped into pieces, then dumped inside potato bags.”
In June the Center for American Progress reported CoreCivic had donated $250,000 to President Trump’s inauguration.