7 year old migrant dies while in custody

[_Kevin Graham]

7-year-old migrant girl taken into Border Patrol custody dies of dehydration, exhaustion

A 7-year-old girl from Guatemala died of dehydration and shock after she was taken into Border Patrol custody last week for crossing into the United States illegally with her father and a large group of migrants along a remote span of New Mexico desert, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Thursday.

The child’s death, which has not been previously reported, is likely to intensify scrutiny of detention conditions at Border Patrol stations and CBP facilities that are increasingly overwhelmed by large numbers of families with children seeking asylum in the United States.

According to CBP records, the girl and her father were taken into custody at around 10 p.m. on Dec. 6 south of Lordsburg, N.M., as part of a group of 163 people who approached U.S. agents to turn themselves in.

More than eight hours later, the child began having seizures at 6:25 a.m., CBP records show. Emergency responders who arrived soon after measured her body temperature at 105.7 degrees, and according to a statement from CBP, she “reportedly had not eaten or consumed water for several days.”

After a helicopter flight to an El Paso hospital, the child went into cardiac arrest and “was revived,” according to the agency. “However, the child did not recover and died at the hospital less than 24 hours after being transported,” CBP said.

The agency did not released the name of the girl or her father, but he remains in El Paso awaiting a meeting with Guatemalan consular officials, according to CBP. The agency is investigating the incident to ensure appropriate policies were followed, the agency said.

Food and water are typically provided to migrants in Border Patrol custody, and it wasn’t immediately clear Thursday if the girl received provisions and a medical exam during the middle of the night, prior to the onset of seizures.

“Our sincerest condolences go out to the family of the child,” CBP spokesman Andrew Meehan said in a statement to The Washington Post.

“Border Patrol agents took every possible step to save the child’s life under the most trying of circumstances,” Meehan said. “As fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, we empathize with the loss of any child.”

Though much of the political and media attention has focused in recent weeks on migrant caravans arriving at the Tijuana-San Diego border, large numbers of Central Americans continue to cross the border into Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. The groups sometimes spend days in smugglers’ stash houses or walking through remote areas with little food or water prior to reaching the border.

Arrests of migrants traveling as family groups have skyrocketed this year, and Homeland Security officials say court rulings that limit their ability to keep families in detention have produced a “catch and release” system that encourages migrants to bring children as a shield against detention and deportation.

In November, Border Patrol agents apprehended a record 25,172 “family unit members” on the Southwest border — including 11,489 in the Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol sector in south Texas and 6,434 in the El Paso sector, which covers far west Texas and all of New Mexico.

Migrants traveling as part of a family group accounted for 58 percent of those taken into custody last month by the Border Patrol.

On Tuesday, CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said during testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee that the agency’s holding cells are “incompatible” with new reality of parents with children coming across the border to surrender to agents en masse, requesting asylum.

“Our border patrol stations were built decades ago to handle mostly male single adults in custody, not families and children,” McAleenan told lawmakers.

The small Border Patrol station in Lordsburg received a single group of 227 migrants on Thursday, according to CBP, after taking in separate group of 123 on Wednesday. Both groups — extremely large by CBP standards — mostly consisted of families and children, according to the agency.

The agency said it was expecting an autopsy on the child, but results would not likely be available for several weeks. An initial diagnosis by physicians at El Paso’s Providence Hospital listed the cause of death as septic shock, fever and dehydration.

[_Kevin Graham]

Kinda refutes the subgenius myth that these people took trucks to the border while eating free food along the way.

[_Jersey Girl]

This article raises more questions than it answers. I'm sick of this half assed crap.

More than eight hours later, the child began having seizures at 6:25 a.m., CBP records show. Emergency responders who arrived soon after measured her body temperature at 105.7 degrees, and according to a statement from CBP, she “reportedly had not eaten or consumed water for several days.”

Was she with her father or not?

The agency did not released the name of the girl or her father, but he remains in El Paso awaiting a meeting with Guatemalan consular officials, according to CBP. The agency is investigating the incident to ensure appropriate policies were followed, the agency said.

What are the policies?

Food and water are typically provided to migrants in Border Patrol custody, and it wasn’t immediately clear Thursday if the girl received provisions and a medical exam during the middle of the night, prior to the onset of seizures.

Why wasn't it immediately clear? Who logs this crap in and where is the log? Who provides oversight?

[_EAllusion]

Here's another fun story:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/ice ... d_ms_tw_ma

The Trump admin put out a call asking legal immigrants to sponsor children it had kidnapped and placed in internment camps. Over a hundred people, mostly family, responded to help the children. It was a sting operation. Arrests followed. They used captured children as a honeypot.

It's so over the top evil I can't even get my head around it. I've thought about it multiple times today, and I can't feel even the slightest bit of empathy for how morally broken a person needs to be to come up with or go along with this scheme. I've felt more empathy for serial killers.

[_Dr Exiled]

I speak Spanish and have a large Spanish speaking clientele. Surprisingly, our immigrant brothers and sisters are human just like the rest of us and should be treated as such. I don't think Trump got the memo.

[_Dr. Shades]

So, her parents purposefully put her into a situation where she would become exhausted and dehydrated?

[_Jersey Girl]

So, her parents purposefully put her into a situation where she would become exhausted and dehydrated?

Pretty much yeah. But, I do think they were trying to get her out of a situation where she would have ended up shot to death or something.

Call me crazy but I don't think refugees pack for the weeks ahead or you know, whip out their credit cards and book into Airbnb when they flee. That's likely why border patrol is ready with food, water and medical attention.

But what do I know?

[_Chap]

So, her parents purposefully put her into a situation where she would become exhausted and dehydrated?

Or perhaps they were naïve or ignorant and did not realise how little care for their welfare the people smugglers would show. We don't know.

Be that as it may: she is said to have died after spending eight hours in the custody of the agents of a hugely powerful and rich state. Citizens of that state will no doubt mainly be concerned to establish whether the agents of that state did all they could or should have done to feed and hydrate this innocent child as soon as they became responsible for her welfare.

[_subgenius]

Kinda refutes the subgenius myth that these people took trucks to the border while eating free food along the way.

CFR

[_subgenius]

...I do think they were trying to get her out of a situation where she would have ended up shot to death or something.

Um, they were from Guatemala, why is this the situation you imagine?