The death of Roxsana Hernández in ICE custody
A trans asylum seeker dies in ICE custody. Two autopsies reach different conclusions.
On 25 May 2018, the trans woman Roxsana Hernández died in a hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She was thirty-three, came from Honduras and was in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE.
Hernández had travelled to the border with a migrant caravan and had applied for asylum at the San Ysidro crossing near San Diego on 9 May. Her sisters later reported that she had fled Honduras because trans people were discriminated against there. She had wanted to open a beauty salon in the United States. After several days in the custody of the border authorities, she was transferred to ICE detention and taken to a prison in New Mexico that has a separate unit for trans women. Shortly afterwards she was in hospital with pneumonia, dehydration and complications of an HIV infection. A week later she was dead.
The cause of death is still disputed today. A pathologist commissioned by the family spoke in November 2018 of severe complications of dehydration. He also found deep bruising on her chest and wrists, which he interpreted as the result of blows and handcuffs. ICE rejected the allegation of abuse. In April 2019, New Mexico's medical examiner came to a different conclusion: Hernández had died of an AIDS-related illness, and her death had been natural. The rib fractures were consistent with resuscitation attempts, and they did not find abuse. The Transgender Law Center, which represents the family, sharply criticised the handling of the report.
The case caused outrage in the United States and Central America. Several senators demanded documents from the authorities about her treatment. It still stands for the question of how safe trans people are in immigration detention.