Roxana Hernandez Dies In ICE Custody
Roxana Hernandez, 33, has died in ICE custody. Hernandez (pictured above) was a trans woman from Honduras who arrived at the border as one of about 60 Central American trans women immigrants seeking asylum in a caravan organized by immigration rights group Pueblo Sin Fronteras. Hernandez was then held for five days by ICE in a cell described as an “icebox,” a holding cell that the American Immigration Council has called “inadequate for any overnight attention” because it is “routinely lacking in adequate food, water, and medical care.” Hernandez was then admitted to a hospital for “with symptoms of pneumonia, dehydration, and complications associated with HIV,” according to a statement from ICE. After being in the hospital for over a week, she died of “what appeared to be cardiac arrest.” Roxana Hernandez is the sixth person to die in ICE custody since October 2017. Read more at NBC News.
Illinois Approves Equal Rights Amendment, 36 Years After Deadline
Last night, Illinois voted to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, which would guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of gender. The problem? The vote happened 36 years after the amendment’s ratification deadline of 1982. However, some supporters say that the 1992 ratification of the 1789 Madison Amendment means that even though the deadline is long past, the ERA could still be a legally viable change to the constitution—if one more state approves it, that is. Read more at the Chicago Tribune.
Denmark Passes Sexist, Islamophobic Law Banning Women From Wearing Burqas And Niqabs
Denmark joins other European countries in passing a law banning garments that cover the face, popularly known as a “burqa ban” because it targets Muslim women who wear burqas and niqabs (the law makes exceptions for non-religious face coverings, such as winter scarves and motorcycle helmets). Gauri van Gulik, Amnesty International’s Europe director, condemned the law, saying, “If the intention of this law was to protect women’s rights, it fails abjectly. Instead, the law criminalises women for their choice of clothing and in so doing flies in the face of those freedoms Denmark purports to uphold.” Read more at the Guardian.
Kim Kardashian Is A Person, Not A Butt
The New York Post is facing backlash for language describing Kim Kardashian’s meeting with Donald Trump to discuss prison reform and sentencing: “Trump Meets Rump,” reads the headline, with the subheds “The other big ass summit” and “Kim Thong Un pitches prez on prison reform.” Read more at USA Today.
Lindy West On Roseanne Barr and “Freedom Of Speech”
Writer Lindy West writes a response to conservatives’ claims that Roseanne getting canceled because of Roseanne Barr’s racism is an attack on freedom of speech: “Treating anti-P.C. arguments as anything but a shell game props up the lie that it is somehow unfair to identify and point out racism, let alone fight to eradicate it. Pointing out and fighting to eradicate racism is how we build the racism-free world that all but racists profess to want.” Read more at the New York Times.
published May 31, 2018
top photo: Roxana Hernandez via Facebook/Diversidad Sin Fronteras
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