Sunday, April 14, 2024

six migrant children

Six migrant children have died in U.S. custody. Here’s what we know about them - Los Angeles Times

Molly Hennessy-Fiske

Reporting from Houston — 

Six migrant children — five from Guatemala and one from El Salvador — have died in federal custody since September.

Most of the children died after becoming ill in Border Patrol’s crowded temporary holding areas.

On Monday, a 16-year-old died after being diagnosed with the flu; 32 people in the McAllen, Texas, facility where he had been held were later quarantined with the flu.

On Wednesday, the Trump administration said a 10-year-old girl from El Salvador with a history of congenital heart defects had died in a hospital in federal custody in September. The Times confirmed her identity as Darlyn Cristabel Cordova-Valle; she was trying to reach Nebraska, where her mother lives.

The deaths have led advocacy groups and lawmakers to call for investigations into immigrant detention conditions on the border. On Thursday, Democratic members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and House Judiciary Committee — three from Texas and one from Florida — wrote to President Trump, asking him to confirm that there have been no other unreported migrant deaths.

When pressed by lawmakers this week about conditions in temporary holding facilities at the border, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan acknowledged that “those conditions are not acceptable.”

The deaths come amid a record increase in migrant families and children crossing the border. McAleenan appealed to Congress this week for more funding to address the surge.

When McAleenan testified before Congress in December, he did not notify lawmakers that a 7-year-old girl had died in Border Patrol custody three days before. Homeland Security officials later ordered medical checks of all children in their custody and expanded medical screenings of migrants as they arrived at the border. But since the medical screenings were added, three more children have died.

Here’s what we know so far about the children’s deaths.

Darlyn Cristabel Cordova-Valle, 10, El Salvador

Days after 10-year-old Darlyn Cristabel Cordova-Valle crossed into the U.S. last year on her way from El Salvador to Nebraska, Border Patrol agents determined she had a debilitating heart condition.

Darlyn crossed the border on her own near Hidalgo, Texas, and was caught by Border Patrol agents at 9:45 p.m. March 1, according to the agency. The next morning, she had a welfare check, complained of chest pains and was sent to Edinburg Children’s Hospital, according to a Border Patrol statement. On March 3, the hospital cleared Darlyn for travel, and she was returned to the Border Patrol, which transferred her to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Later that day, Health and Human Services placed Darlyn at a Baptist Christian Family Services shelter in San Antonio, according to the Border Patrol statement. By then, she was considered “medically fragile,” with a history of congenital heart defects, according to Health and Human Services spokesman Mark Weber.

Complications following a surgical procedure in San Antonio left the girl in a coma, Weber said. She was transported to a nursing facility in Phoenix for palliative care in May, then to a nursing facility in Omaha on Sept. 26, to be closer to her family, he said.

Three days later, the girl was taken to Children’s Hospital of Omaha, where she died because of fever and respiratory distress, Weber said.

Darlyn’s body was sent back to El Salvador for burial, according to Carlos Martinez, past president of the Salvadoran Civic Assn. of Nebraska. The nonprofit organization in Omaha, where Darlyn’s mother lives, had helped arrange legal and postmortem assistance for the girl’s family, he said.

Ruben Garcia, director of Annunciation House, answers media questions in El Paso in December after reading a statement from the family of Jakelin Caal Maquin.

Ruben Garcia, director of Annunciation House, answers media questions in El Paso in December after reading a statement from the family of Jakelin Caal Maquin.

(Rudy Gutierrez / Associated Press)

Jakelin Caal Maquín, 7, Guatemala

Jakelin Caal Maquín died Dec. 8, soon after she was apprehended by Border Patrol with her father after they entered the U.S. illegally, aiming to seek asylum.

There were traces of streptococcus bacteria in Jakelin’s lungs, adrenal gland, liver and spleen, according to her autopsy. The infection led to sepsis and organ failures, it said.

Jakelin was hospitalized about 12 hours after she and her father, Nery Gilberto Caal Cuz, 29, were caught, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. They were stopped with more than 150 people Dec. 6 on a remote stretch of New Mexico’s border.

Jakelin and her father were put on a bus bound for a Border Patrol station, and just before it left at 5 the next morning he reported that she was vomiting, the Border Patrol said. When the bus arrived about 90 minutes later, Jakelin’s temperature had reached 105.7 degrees and an emergency medical technician had to revive her, Border Patrol said. She was flown to a hospital in El Paso, where she died the next day.

Before the autopsy results, U.S. officials claimed the girl had not been given food or water for days before being detained, a contention her father strongly denied through his attorneys.

Felipe Gomez Alonzo, 8, Guatemala

Felipe Gomez Alonzo died in Border Patrol custody on Christmas Eve. He suffered a staph infection in his lungs, the bacteria entered his bloodstream and he developed sepsis, according to an autopsy by New Mexico’s medical examiner.

Felipe and his father, Agustin Gomez Perez, were caught by the Border Patrol in mid-December after seeking asylum in an attempt to escape extreme poverty, relatives told CNN. Gomez’s daughter said he took out a loan to pay for the journey after hundreds of others from their rural community in western Guatemala successfully crossed the U.S. border with their children. He took Felipe, his eldest son.

Once in Border Patrol custody, Felipe and his father were taken to several holding areas, including the Paso del Norte international bridge in El Paso, where authorities later held people in hastily erected pens, with families sleeping on bare dirt.

The day before Felipe died, the father and son were taken to the Border Patrol station in Alamogordo, N.M., at about 1 a.m., Border Patrol said. An agent there noticed Felipe was coughing with “glossy eyes,” the agency said, and he complained of a sore throat, congestion and fever, according to the autopsy.

Felipe was hospitalized, registered a 103-degree fever and tested positive for the flu. He was held for observation for 90 minutes, released with prescriptions for amoxicillin and ibuprofen, then fell sick hours later and was readmitted to the hospital, where he died.

Juan de León Gutiérrez, 16, Guatemala

After crossing the border on his own, Juan de Leon Gutiérrez was sent to Casa Padre, a federally contracted shelter run by Austin-based nonprofit Southwest Key in Brownsville, Texas.

Border Patrol agents caught Juan near El Paso on April 19 and took him to Casa Padre the next day. Shelter staff noticed he was sick on April 21 and he was hospitalized. Nine days later, he died after suffering complications from an infection in his brain’s frontal lobe, authorities said.

Juan’s former teacher told CBS News that he was a “very nice student, intelligent, creative, but shy.” He said the boy helped his father in the coffee fields, where drought and depressed prices have led many to migrate north.

When Juan missed class — often because he had to help his father farm — he would run out to the road at day’s end to find his teacher walking home and explain.

“Juanito was a very humble child full of dreams,” teacher Jimmy Cristian Gutiérrez García told CBS. “He was very cheerful and responsible in his studies and chores. There was always a smile and a greeting for his classmates and teachers.”

Wilmer Josué Ramírez Vásquez, 2½, Guatemala

Wilmer Josué Ramírez Vásquez died May 14 after being hospitalized for weeks in Texas, according to U.S. and Guatemalan authorities.

He was taken into custody with his mother by Border Patrol agents April 3 near Paso del Norte international bridge. Three days later, the boy’s mother told agents her son was ill and he was transferred to Providence Children’s Hospital in El Paso, according to Border Patrol officials.

The boy remained hospitalized for about a month before he died.

Guatemala’s consul in Del Rio, Texas, said the boy had a high fever and difficulty breathing, and had been diagnosed with pneumonia. The El Paso medical examiner’s office is performing an autopsy, and results were pending Friday, a spokeswoman said.

Carlos Hernandez Vásquez, 16, Guatemala

Carlos Hernandez Vásquez was found unresponsive Monday morning in a Border Patrol temporary holding facility, hours after a nurse diagnosed him with the flu, an agency spokesman said.

The teen was taken into custody after crossing the southern border in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley on May 13 with 70 other migrants, according to the agency. He was held at a processing facility for six days before being transferred Sunday to a Border Patrol station in Weslaco, where he said he felt sick and was prescribed Tamiflu.

It’s not clear why Carlos was not hospitalized or how frequently he was checked during his final hours. Border Patrol officials said they did a wellness check an hour before the youth was found unresponsive.

It’s also not clear why Border Patrol didn’t transfer Carlos to the Department of Health and Human Services within 72 hours, as required by law for youths who arrive at the border without parents. Border Patrol officials have not said why Carlos’ transfer was delayed, however, they have noted that HHS requires youths be “fit to travel.”

The FBI, local police, and the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General are investigating the boy’s death.

More to Read

 

Monday, March 22, 2021

Some resources for thinking about immigration

 The present “crisis” on the border

https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/news/facts-about-current-situation-border

Putting the U.S.-Mexico ‘Border Crisis’ Narrative into Context (wola.org)

 Immigration:

 A good source for tracking most things that have to do with immigration:

https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/

 These are dated but important references for understanding:

1.       the immigration of Central Americans to the southern US border,

2.       the origins of the US policy of “deterring” immigration (by creating life-threatening conditions along the border)

3.       the origins of policies enacted advocated for by Stephen Miller and promoted by the Trump administration.

4.       And the deadly mix of local and state policing with federal immigration enforcement.

 (A lovely set of video vignettes that give a good view of why Central Americans make the terrifying trip across Mexico):

 The Invisibles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8WT_ZCUmaY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOi9hoSfCLc (subtitled)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2cEw6k9ZFM&t=305s (subtitled)

 

A scholar sets out how the Trump anti-immigrant machine got set in place:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/trump-ice/565772/

The Fresh Air interview with the author is excellent:

https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=636961877

 

A sketch of how asylum process works:

https://www.wola.org/analysis/fact-sheet-united-states-immigration-central-american-asylum-seekers/

 

When Deportation is a Death Sentence:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/15/when-deportation-is-a-death-sentence

 

Immigration and the Rio Grande Valley

 

The Border Patrol: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/10/border-patrol-the-green-monster-112220/

 

Zero tolerance: https://www.aclutx.org/en/news/prosecuting-migrants-our-southern-border

 

How we got to believing that it is ok that people die trying to save their lives:

https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/border-trilogy-part-1

https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/border-trilogy-part-2-hold-line

https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/border-trilogy-part-3-what-remains

 

Local attorney Jodi Goodwin helps reunite a mother and her child.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/652/ice-capades/act-one-6

 

State troopers use a sniper who kills two immigrants:

https://www.texasobserver.org/human-cost-border-security-build-up/

 

State troopers roam our neighborhoods, hunting human beings:

https://theintercept.com/2017/12/10/theyre-taking-everybody-videos-show-texas-troopers-ripping-apart-immigrant-families-during-traffic-stops/

 

An eighth grader confronts someone who preys on immigrants:

https://splinternews.com/the-old-man-who-calls-border-patrol-on-immigrants-and-1819456647

 

A sketch artist goes to immigration court:

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/immigration-border-crisis-molly-crabapple-713991/

 

An essay on what it means to be an immigrant: https://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n05/frances-stonorsaunders/where-on-earth-are-you

 

A novel about a first encounter with refugees:

https://www.amazon.com/Go-Went-Gone-Jenny-Erpenbeck/dp/0811225941

 

 

The Border Wall

https://resourcesfortheborder.blogspot.com/2018/12/border-wall-information.html

 

Bottom line: Residents of the Rio Grande Valley are overwhelmingly against the construction of a border wall. We already have an existing border wall which has been unnecessary (the amount of immigration is at an all-time low; terrorists, drugs and other threats to our nation's well-being come through the border across bridges (smuggled in) or through our northern border.

 

 

Friday, May 29, 2020

Greetings from Brownsville/Matamoros


May 29, 2020
Greetings to all of you from Brownsville/Matamoros.

The federal courts in Brownsville and McAllen remain closed to the public; the tent courts and the MPP process has been halted until June 22nd. The numbers of people released by CBP or ICE to local shelters (La Posada, Catholic Charities, Good Neighbor Settlement House) continue to be very few and far between—perhaps one or two or three a week.

The asylum seekers, however, remain in their tents in Matamoros, hunkered down against the suffocating heat, the heavy rains of May, and the fear of COVID19 infections. Lizzie Cavazos from the Angry Tias has an interview in this week’s Texas Observer that gives more detail on the present circumstances in the camp in Matamoros.

Just recently, the Trump administration implemented a new evil in its persecution of asylum seekers, of unaccompanied minors, and immigrants in general. Carelessly borrowing language from the Center for Disease Control, Border Patrol began the practice known as “expulsion” in which anyone apprehended along the border is immediately sent back to Mexico (Lucas Guttentag offers a comprehensive exploration of this here). I have spoken with families who surrendered to the border patrol, attempted to ask for asylum, who were ignored, and then were made to cross back into Mexico at 2a.m. Unsurprisingly, at that hour, they were confronted by cartel members.

While CBP has told advocates that unaccompanied children under the age of twelve would be turned over to the Office of Refugee Resettlement,  those over the age of twelve would be sent back to the countries from which they were fleeing--without so much as a question about why they made that long journey to begin with.

There is no doubt in my mind that families fleeing violence in their own countries will now try and slip past the border patrol and into the interior of the country. Some advocates have begun discussing the appalling possibility of finding children’s bodies in the desert around Falfurrias and Sarita.

The news from Central America—violence, famine, and plague—assures that many people will continue to flee north, even despite the hardened borders along the way. The pandemic has offered the brutal forms of enforcement activity along the borders of Central America and Mexico a green light of impunity. Along our own border, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently found that the Border Patrol was not responsible for the actions of a uniformed officer who, while on duty, raped and attempted the murder of three women (while this incident occurred in 2014, the ruling falls in line with a series of other judgements that continue to make it so very difficult to hold federal law enforcement responsible for the actions of their officers).

It remains a grim time for so many of God’s children. It is hard to see a clear way forward as the precarious processes to seek justice for immigrants continue to fail and as the nation reels from its own very close-to-home struggles for peace. Your contributions, be they of material goods, of solidarity in spirit, or of powerful witness, remain important.  I continue to hear from asylum seekers from across the country, who, in their own way, ask after “those people that helped us.”