Migrants With HIV Claim U.S. Neglect
(Guillermo Arias/AP Photo)
Olga Arellano sobs as she recalls how her HIV-positive daughter spent two months succumbing to infections in a U.S. migrant detention center, complaining that she didn’t see a doctor or get the right medicine.
Fellow inmates also begged for help after Victoria Arellano started vomiting blood in their holding cell, where her lawyer said 105 detainees were crammed onto bunks and mattresses in a space designed for 40.
She died three days later, chained to a hospital bed.
The death of the 23-year-old transgender Mexican immigrant is at the forefront of discussions at this week’s international AIDS conference in Mexico City. Rights activists say it shows the failure of immigration officials to deal humanely with HIV-positive inmates among the 30,000 migrants held in detention centers across the United States.
New York-based Human Rights Watch surveyed detention center officials and inmates after Arellano’s death and found 14 cases in which it said HIV-infected immigrants were not given proper care while in custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Presented with details of the allegations by the Arellano family and the rights group, ICE spokesman Brandon A. Alvarez-Montgomery told the AP that he couldn’t comment since Arellano is suing the agency. When Human Rights Watch first presented its report in December, ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said “ensuring the welfare and safety of those in our custody is one of our top priorities.”
Activists say many HIV-infected migrants in U.S. detention centers are not given their medicine regularly, which is crucial to their survival. People with HIV can live otherwise healthy lives if they take a strict regimen of specific medications each day and closely monitor their blood cells to be sure their immune systems are working.
That’s difficult to do for people being deported, particularly in overcrowded detention centers. When the regimen is interrupted, the virus rebounds and the immune system crashes.
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