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Immigration See other Immigration Articles Title: HIV-positive migrants (read, illegals) accuse US of neglect HIV-positive migrants accuse US of neglect Monday, August 04, 2008 9:35:46 PM By JULIE WATSON 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 Other Health Photos 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. The family's lawyer, Steven Archer, says Arellano never got proper medical attention after she was stopped for drunk driving and handed over to immigration officials in June 2007. "They never gave her any of the proper medications for her AIDS diagnosis. They did give her a prescription for a urinary tract infection, but even then, they filled her prescription with the wrong strength, and they never diagnosed the meningitis, even though she had been complaining about headaches, sweats and generalized pain for weeks. That is what killed her in the end," Archer said. "It was so advanced that it involved her brain, her liver, her lungs, her heart, and a couple of other organs. She died in terrible pain."
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#1. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
NPR also injecting this story into the nation's blood stream on our dime today.
#5. To: buckeye, MUDDOG, all (#1)
Give me your tired, your poor, your AIDS infected needy...
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