REUTERS/ David McNew
A transgender woman from Honduras died in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last Friday, after an alleged five-day stint in a freezing room that migrants have dubbed the “ice box.” Roxana Hernández, who crossed the border with a caravan of Central American migrants, reportedly died of HIV-related complications after her detainment. The Transgender Law Center has called Hernández’s death “negligent.” The organization’s legal director Flor Bermudez told The Guardian that “If you have an incoming immigrant that shows signs of medical distress—including being HIV positive and having pneumonia—it is negligent to place them in the ‘ice box’ for any amount of time.” According to ICE, Hernandez is the sixth migrant to die in the agency’s custody since last October.