[Ppnews] Death of trans immigrant in detention forges united protests

[Political Prisoner News]

http://www.workers.org/2007/us/trans-0913/

Death of trans immigrant in detention forges united protests
By Leslie Feinberg

Published Sep 8, 2007 11:29 AM

Olga Arellano spoke at a rally at the Federal 
Building in downtown Los Angeles on Aug. 27 about 
how her 23-year-old daughter, Victoria, died July 
20 at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement 
(ICE) federal detention facility in South Los Angeles.

“I can only find the strength to talk about this 
because I want people to know what is going on 
inside that place,” Olga Arellano stated. “I 
don’t want another family to have to live through 
this nightmare.” (Daily Journal, Aug. 9)

Authorities reportedly refused to give Victoria 
Arellano—an undocumented Mexican transwoman with 
AIDS—urgently needed medical attention and her 
critically necessary prescribed antibiotic, 
despite mass protests on her behalf by other 
immigrant detainees. Authorities had imprisoned 
her since May in a men’s mass detention cell.

Outrage over Victoria Arellano’s death is forging 
a coalition of organizations that fight for 
immigrant rights, AIDS care, and trans, lesbian, 
gay and bisexual rights. The bilingual Los 
Angeles vigil and media conference was called by 
Arellano’s family and Bienestar—a Latina 
community service and advocacy organization 
working to meet the needs of people living with HIV/AIDS.

The Aug. 26 call for the vigil was signed by 
Grupo de Apoyo HIVIDA in Ciudad Juárez, México, 
and the following California-based groups: Asian 
Pacific American Legal Center of Southern 
California; API Equality; Garment Workers Center; 
Homies Unidos; Coalition of Humane Immigration 
Rights of Los Angeles; Club Napa Gay; QTeam; Gay 
and Straight Alliance Network; Inlakech; SELA HIV 
Prevention Program; Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian 
Center; Transgender Law Center; The Wall Las 
Memorias Project; and the American Civil 
Liberties Union of Southern California.

National organizations included the Mexican 
American Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
(MALDEF); National Immigrant Solidarity Network; 
Project Islamic HOPE; Lambda Legal; and the Gay 
and Lesbian Task Force. Coalición de Derechos 
Humanos—Arizona; Immigration Equality—N.Y.; and 
Esperanza Peace and Justice Center of Texas endorsed.

The immigrant rights March 25 Coalition and the 
Troops Out Now Coalition supported and publicized the vigil.

Bienestar communications manager, Coral Lopez, 
said: “This case exemplifies what we’ve been 
saying for all these years—immigration is in fact 
an LGBT issue. Victoria’s unfortunate death 
demonstrates why we need to be working in coalition on these issues.”

A solidarity vigil for Victoria Arellano was also 
held Aug. 28 at the Federal Building in Tucson, 
Ariz. Sponsoring groups included Derechos 
Humanos, the National Network for Immigrant and 
Refugee Rights, May 1st Coalition, Borderland 
Theater, Fundación México, Tucson Samaritans, 
Salt of the Earth Labor College, Humane Borders 
and Wingspan—Southern Arizona’s LGBT community center.

That vigil called for socially just legislation, 
an end to deaths at the border, an end to raids, 
a moratorium on immigration detentions and 
deportations, restoration and expansion of the 
due process rights of all immigrants and 
protection and expansion of the labor, human and 
civil rights of all immigrants and refugees.

Prisoners protested for Victoria

Victoria Arellano, whose birth name was Víctor, 
came to the U.S. as a child. As a young adult, 
she worked at a supermarket in West Hollywood 
while volunteering at a drug and alcohol treatment facility.

Three years before her detention, she was 
medically described as “asymptomatic.” She was 
prescribed a dose of antibiotics—first bactrim 
and later dapasone—designed to stave off 
pulmonary infections that could lead to pneumonia.

Arellano was swept up by ICE agents in May and 
denied medication while in detention facing deportation.

“The consequences of taking someone off that 
medication,” observed Homayoon Khanlou, chief of 
medicine for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, “is 
that within a few weeks a patient may 
unfortunately develop pneumonia and then not 
respond to treatment.” (Daily Journal, Aug. 9)

She was held in a mass cell designed to bunk 50 
men, but in which some 80 prisoners were crammed.

If the tenderness of the solidarity that the 
immigrant men showed to Arellano could have saved 
her life, she would still be alive.

The respect for her as a trans prisoner can be 
heard in the quotes by the men jailed with her, 
who described in an Aug. 9 Daily Journal report 
how Arellano lay in a bunk bed suffering from 
excruciating headaches, stomach cramps and back pain.

Prisoner Oscar Santander recalled, “We all asked 
the guards for help, to take Victoria to the 
infirmary, but no one did anything.”

In the last two weeks of her life, prisoner 
Walter Ayala said, “She was so sick that if you 
tried to move her she would scream.”

He stressed, “We made requests to the infirmary 
asking for help because she was so sick. She 
wasn’t eating, she had constant diarrhea, and she 
was vomiting blood. The nurse who responded was 
totally inhumane. She said, ‘Oh, is that the same 
person you complained to us about before? The 
doctor hasn’t approved any medication. Just give 
her Tylenol and water, and it’ll go away.’ This 
happened each time we made a request for six days.”

The men described how they used their bath towels 
soaked in cold water to try to bring down her 
fever and brought cardboard boxes for her to 
throw up into. The immigrant detainees cleaned up the blood and vomit.

Under pressure from those imprisoned with 
Arellano, on July 13 the detention center 
infirmary gave her a prescription for 
amoxicillin, which is not an antibiotic used to 
treat AIDS-related infections, medical experts noted.

Less than a day later she was back in the cell. 
Arellano couldn’t stomach the drugs and threw up blood, Santander said.

“The last week was the worst,” he stressed. “She 
couldn’t stand so we took turns taking her to the bathroom.”

Prisoner Abel Gutierrez said, “She was so sick 
and they wouldn’t do anything.” Gutierrez 
described how that night, 80 of her fellow 
prisoners defied the order to line up for evening 
head count, and staged a protest on Arellano’s behalf.

Gutierrez said the detainees chanted one word 
loudly in unison, over and over: “Hospital!”

More than 70 of the prisoners signed a petition 
demanding immediate medical care for Arellano.

The mass demonstration by prisoners forced 
officials to call an ambulance. Arellano was 
taken to the intensive care unit of Little Company of Mary Hospital.

There, although she was too weak to stand and on 
a respirator, Arellano’s mother found her 
daughter chained to a hospital bed, while two 
immigration agents stood at the door.

Olga Arellano said, “At times, my Victoria wanted 
to reposition her body, but she couldn’t because 
she was shackled.” Guards refused the mother’s 
request to unchain her daughter, who died two days later.

Medical neglect is lynching

After Arellano’s death, her fellow prisoners 
collected $245 from what little money they had 
and sent it to the Arellano family. (Daily Journal)

Arellano family attorney Roman Silberfeld 
stressed the solidarity shown by the more than 70 
detainees who petitioned authorities for 
immediate care for a fellow prisoner. “These are 
people who are on the verge of being deported and 
have their cases pending and yet they stand up to 
the government that could kick them out and say, 
‘This is wrong.’” (Los Angeles Times, Aug. 11)

More than 20 of the men who contacted outside 
help on Arellano’s behalf or witnessed her 
mistreatment were reportedly transferred out of 
the Los Angeles area, which disrupted their legal 
consultations and family visits. (hrw.org)

Bardis Vakili, of the American Civil Liberties 
Union of Southern California, added that some of 
the detainees who were transferred were not 
allowed to bring their legal papers, although 
they were days from court hearings. “This means 
these men don’t have access to their immigration 
paperwork, or the research they did on their 
case. Many of them are representing themselves 
and this makes it very difficult for them.”

The Arellano family announced plans to file a 
wrongful death claim against the Department of 
Homeland Security and other U.S. government agencies.

Arellano was the third prisoner known to have 
died at the San Pedro center. Since Arellano’s 
death, a pregnant Mexican woman in El Paso and a 
Brazilian man in Rhode Island have died in 
immigration custody. A total of 62 prisoners are 
known to have died in federal immigration detention since 2004.

Close to 30,000 immigrants are believed to be 
imprisoned in some 400 privately run and federal 
detention centers and jails. (Los Angeles Times, Aug. 11)

Confiscation of badly needed medication and 
refusing life-and-death medical attention are 
lynchings. Solidarity—the kind of unity that 
Victoria Arellano inspired—is a powerful weapon 
against this war of terror being waged against 
the undocumented immigrant population in the U.S.



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