8-20-07, 9:37 am

MEXICO, Aug. 16 (PL).— A plenum of the Permanent Commission of Mexico’s Congress today denounced the humiliations, abuse, violations of human rights and deaths of immigrants in U.S. border facilities.

A proposal by legislators from the Convergence for Democracy Party asked the foreign minister to intervene in order to clarify the circumstances of the death of a Mexican citizen, Rosa Contreras.

A few days ago, Contreras died at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in El Paso, Texas where she was being held.

The woman, who was two months pregnant, died three hours after complaining of pain behind her knee, when her blood pressure dropped and she lost consciousness.

Doctors did not perceive the symptoms of a coronary embolism, and she did not receive the required medical attention.

Contreras was to be deported to Mexico after an unclear legal process found her guilt of health care crimes, for which she had served 18 months in a federal prison, according to the Convergence petition.

The petition states that detention centers are merely security facilities, and that those who are held there are only involved in an administrative process, not a criminal one.

Detainees are locked up incommunicado; the facilities are overcrowded and due process for notifying consular officials is not followed. Medical services are insufficient, which threatens the human rights of detainees, and even more so in the case of women.

The Convergence petition asks for a multiparty Congressional working group to be established to review these conditions and the intervention of the appropriate authorities.

Translated by Granma International

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