By Valeria Fernández and Jude Joffe-Block | Arizona Center for Investigative Journalism
Rodrigo Martínez was certain he had a fever. Gasping for air, he said, felt like breathing pepper. It burned.
It had been several days, and still, no one at the La Palma Correctional Center had taken his temperature, Martínez told AZCIR in a phone interview on Saturday. The 32-year-old Mexican national hadn’t been tested for COVID-19, though at least two other detainees have become infected at the private immigration detention center in Eloy, Arizona where he’s been held for nearly two months.
When Martínez asked to see a medic Friday night, he said a guard told him he must submit a formal request, and warned it might take time. He needed to say “something specific,” Martínez said the guard explained before he could take him to the doctor.
“Do I have to tell you that I’m dying so you will take me?,” Martínez asked.
