An Arizona LGBTQ+ group is calling on lawmakers to release a Phoenix woman with cancer who has been in an immigration detention center for five months despite being a legal resident.
Arbella Rodríguez Márquez, who has lived in the U.S. for 25 years and has no criminal record, is reportedly experiencing significant weight loss and other rapidly deteriorating health conditions as she battles chronic lymphocytic leukemia at Eloy Detention Center, the largest ICE prison in the state. Her partner, Sonia Almaraz, has said Rodríguez Márquez is not receiving proper medical care, and that she worries she will not make it out of the center alive.
“In the past five months, she has lost 55 pounds, her hands are swollen and her health worsens every day inside the violent place,” Almaraz said. “Her body is beginning to collapse, she’s experiencing swelling, blotches, bruises, fatigue, and extreme dehydration due to the lack of medical care and proper treatment.”
Almaraz and Rodríguez Márquez, who have been partners for 13 years, were stopped at the Nogales border crossing on their way back into the U.S. from Mexico, according to ABC 15. The two were directed to an inspection point, removed from the vehicle and separated immediately, and Almaraz, a U.S. citizen…