Detention Conditions Facing Queer and Transgender Immigrants

Program Description

CRS is proud to co-sponsor this public panel discussion organized by OUTLaw, UCLA Law's Queer student organization.  This panel will explore the current conditions facing queer and transgender people in immigration detention centers.  The panel will focus on the case of Victoria Arellano, a Mexican immigrant and transwoman, who was detained at the Terminal Island Federal Detention Facility in San Pedro, California.  Arrellano was HIV positive and died under the custody of the US Immigration Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) of the Department of Homeland Security in 2007 as a result of detention facility staff denying her medication.

Speakers

Pearl Saracho, Staff Attorney, HIV & AIDS Legal Services Alliance
Allegra Padilla, Community Organizer, Homies Unidos
Coral Lopez, Community Advocate, Bienestar
Marisol Orihuela, Liman Fellow, American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California

Moderator:  Saul Sarabia, Program Director, Critical Race Studies Program at UCLA School of Law 

Co-Sponsors 

OUTLaw, CRS at UCLA, the Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy, the Law Raza Law Students Association, the Immigration Law Society, and the American Constitution Society at UCLA Law

Background Materials

Sandra Hernandez, "A Lethal Limbo for Immigrants: Lack of healthcare turns federal detention into a death sentence for some immigrants," Los Angeles Times, June 1, 2008.

Ben Ehrenreich, "Death on Terminal Island," Los Angeles Magazine, September 2008

Contact

If you have questions about this program, please contact UCLA Law Student, Alicia Virani at virani2010@lawnet.ucla.edu