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Local groups make legal outcry over treatment of LGBTQ+ migrants

As migrants continue to arrive in Tijuana, Mexico, a small group of them are say they are being persecuted because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. While they hope the United States ...

SAN DIEGO (NEWS 8) — As migrants continue to arrive in Tijuana, Mexico, a small group of them are say they are being persecuted because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

While they hope the United States will accept them, the truth is LGBTQ+ migrants find themselves facing obstacles here in the states as well.

Many in the migrant caravan, who have made their way to Tijuana, say living in their home countries is not an option as they face violence there for being LGBTQ+.

According to local agencies working with these migrants, one case of what they face in the U.S. is exemplified in the death of Roxsana Hernandez.

On Monday, members of several local organizations, including the Transgender Law Center, gathered to announce a legal development in the death of Roxsana - a 33-year-old transgender woman and asylum-seeker from Honduras who died in immigration enforcement custody last May.

Migrants’ rights attorneys say an autopsy showed Roxsana’s cause of death was dehydration.

The speakers on Monday announced they are taking the first steps in filing a wrongful death lawsuit in Roxsana’s death.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for Roxsana’s family back in Honduras.

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