SENATE MEMORIAL 67

54th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2019

INTRODUCED BY

Jacob R. Candelaria

A MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TO CONVENE A HUMAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS PREVENTION AND TREATMENT TASK FORCE TO WORK WITH MEDICAL PROVIDERS AT THE CIBOLA COUNTY CORRECTIONAL CENTER TO ENSURE THAT PROPER REPORTING TO THE STATE IS OCCURRING AND TO STUDY ACCESS TO HUMAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS RESOURCES IN PRISON.

     WHEREAS, Roxsana Hernandez Rodriguez was a thirty-three- year-old transgender woman from Honduras, seeking asylum in the United States, who died due to complications of human immunodeficiency virus, more commonly known as HIV, in Albuquerque on May 25, 2018, after spending sixteen days in the custody of United States customs and border protection, immigration and customs enforcement and at the Cibola county correctional center in Milan, New Mexico; and

     WHEREAS, the Cibola county correctional center is the only transgender-designated immigration and customs enforcement immigrant detention facility in the country and contracts with corecivic and correct care solutions to provide medical services to all transgender women in its custody; and

     WHEREAS, one in four transgender women in the United States is living with HIV according to the federal centers for disease control and prevention, which has been the most commonly reported disease by the women being released from immigration and customs enforcement custody at the Cibola county correctional center; and

     WHEREAS, transgender asylum-seekers living with HIV represent an especially vulnerable population that does not belong behind bars; and

     WHEREAS, parole should be considered for eligible asylum-seekers living with HIV being detained at the Cibola county correctional center in order to receive HIV-related treatment, or eligible asylum-seekers should be guaranteed timely and full medical treatment while in custody; and

     WHEREAS, privately run prisons in New Mexico have a long documented history of inadequate medical treatment that has resulted in the deaths of inmates and detainees; and

     WHEREAS, transgender, gay and lesbian asylum-seekers are fleeing violence, persecution, discrimination and lack of medical access; and

     WHEREAS, the New Mexico legislature passed the Public Health Act to control, monitor and assist individuals in New Mexico with a sexually transmitted disease or a threatening communicable disease, such as HIV, by requiring all medical providers in the state to report any new cases of HIV and other communicable diseases to the state; and  

     WHEREAS, the department of health implements the Public Health Act and the sections related to the state's regulation of HIV and other communicable diseases; and

     WHEREAS, the department of health has published comprehensive regulations for reporting individuals infected with HIV and other communicable diseases in Section 7.4.3.13 of the New Mexico Administrative Code; and

     WHEREAS, the senate seeks to protect the public health of all New Mexicans, the vulnerable population of transgender women and all people currently in New Mexico prisons;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the department of health be requested to convene an HIV prevention and treatment task force to work with the medical providers at the Cibola county correctional center to understand any reporting responsibilities that the licensed physicians treating people with HIV at the prison may have to the department of health; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the HIV prevention and treatment task force be requested to study the access to HIV treatment and care to the transgender women detained at the Cibola county correctional center, and to offer options to collaborate to provide services and recommendations of best practices to the prison for providing treatment and care to transgender women with HIV; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the secretary of health and the secretary of corrections.

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