Honduran Woman Becomes Third Undocumented Migrant to Die in 3 Days After Being Apprehended at US-Mexico Border

By Ella Torres, New York Daily News

04 June 19

 

40-year-old Honduran woman who was apprehended Monday morning in Texas at the U.S.-Mexico border and taken into Customs and Border Protection custody has died, the agency announced.

CBP said in a statement the woman collapsed at 6:45 a.m., about 25 minutes after U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended her.

Emergency personnel arrived at the scene in Eagle Pass shortly after and the woman was taken to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

The unidentified woman’s death comes just hours after CBP announced another fatality and a day after ICE said a migrant who was in their custody died.

CBP said earlier Monday that a 33-year-old Salvadoran man, who appeared to seize shortly after he was apprehended, died Sunday.

Also on Sunday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced the death of Johana Medina Leon, a transgender woman from El Salvador.

Leon, who had been in ICE custody since mid April, was taken to a hospital in El Paso, Texas, on May 28 after complaining of chest pain, the agency said.

That same day, she had also requested to be tested for HIV and the result came back positive, according to the agency. She died at the hospital Saturday.

Kris Hayashi, executive director of the Transgender Law Center, said in a statement she was “devastated and outraged, but not surprised” following Leon’s death.

A little more than a year before, Roxsana Hernandez, a transgender woman from Honduras, died in ICE custody. An independent autopsy found signs of abuse in her case.

“ICE, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and all the agencies and companies responsible for Roxsana’s death have only grown bolder in their cruelty, inhumanity, and lawlessness," Hayashi said. "These deaths are a direct result of U.S. government policy, and will continue unless we force dramatic change.”