By: Leon kwasi Kuntuo-Asare

The Family and lawyers of Roxsana Hernandez Rodriguez, are looking for answers in how she died.

According to her family and their representatives, Rodriguez, was an HIV positive transgender woman from Honduras, who was seeking Asylum in the United States.

On May 13, she was taken into ICE custody, at the Ysidro Port of entry near the border of San Diego, California. On May 16, She would be transferred to a for-profit ICE detention center, the Cibola County Correctional Center in New Mexico, and placed in a unit for transgender detainees.

Nine days later, she would die at the Lovelace medical Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was originally determined that she died of cardiac arrest. Later, a private autopsy, which was paid for by the Transgender Law Center, which is presenting Rodriguez’s family, later revealed that they believed she died of dehydration, in combination with her HIV infection, the autopsy, would also show signs of possible abuse, she reportedly had shackle marks on her wrist and bruising on her stomach and back, which could suggest that she was beaten.

According to CNN, “TLC sent a written notice of a personal injury and wrongful death claim to the state of New Mexico on November 19, the first step in filing a lawsuit.”

Link below for additional information:

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/11/27/us/transgender-asylum-seeker-wrongful-death-claim/index.html