Born Victor Arellano, Victoria identified herself as a woman for years. At 23 Victoria crossed the American-Mexican border in May 2007 hoping for a life of opportunity…but was immediately transferred to a Los Angeles detention center in San Pedro. She died on July 20th, 2007.
Not only did ICE place a woman in a detention room full of men, increasing the risk of assault and rape; they denied Victoria her AIDS medication. Arellano had been placed on Dapsone, an antibiotic that prevents pulmonary infections from developing into pneumonia. The consequences of discontinuing this antibiotic is that the persons immune system will not be able to maintain an adequate level of defense system for the pathogens-leading to the development of pneumonia, diarrhea, meningitis, and eventual death.
That was the fate of Victoria Arellano. She was vomiting blood, had vicious diarrhea, severe cramps and headaches. When fellow detainees tried to get help for Victoria by chanting ‘hospital’ to the detention center staff, they responded ‘give her Tylenol and water and she’ll be fine. 55 detainees (all men) signed a petition stating their refusal to cooperate with center protocol until something was done to help Arellano. For once the men in the room did not partake in the vicious statistic of rape and abuse-they actually were the only ones taking care of Victoria, escorting her to the bathroom when she was to weak too walk and applying cold compresses to her fore head to bring down her high fever, unfortunately to no avail. Finally brought to a hospital almost two months after her initial detainment, Victoria Arellano died of meningitis and severe pneumonia.
The San Pedro detention center is being investigated-but on the hush hush. Medical records will not be released, questions remain unanswered and all on-going investigations from the past to the present stay just like that-ongoing. My question is this: New Jersey just passed a law banning the death penalty…since September 2007 no executions have taken place in the US pending the decision on whether the ritual lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment; so did Victoria Arellano deserve to die because she was an illegal immigrant? A transgender? An AIDS sufferer? An absolute outcast from the comfortable class of people she would never partake in? Arellano died a cruel and unusual death, a complete unmerited, totally preventable death. She was a human being, and a wonderful one at that, as told by many of her peers.
And the next question that comes to mind is this: how is ICE protecting our national borders by letting a young woman suffer miserably until her death and overtly avoiding responsibility? We can be outraged over the CIA tapes gone missing but do nothing at all when an innocent person suffers at the hands of a government institution? The calculated negligence shown towards Victoria Arellano is not only atrocious, is inhuman.
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