8-year-old boy dies in CBP custody
The unnamed boy is the second child to die in recent weeks in CBP custody. A 7-year-old girl, Jakelin Caal Maquin, died earlier this month after she and her father were apprehended crossing the U.S.-Mexican border.
Congressional Democrats expressed outrage at the news.
What is happening at our southern border?! This makes the second death of a young child at our border in as many weeks. This is outrageous! This shocks the conscience.https://t.co/38VLtmtVFz
— Sheila Jackson Lee (@JacksonLeeTX18) December 25, 2018
“This will not go unanswered,” wrote Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.).
Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) said CBP was unprepared for dealing with medical emergencies. “It is clear #CBP is not trained nor prepared to provide medical or emergency responses to anyone in its custody & especially not to children,” he wrote.
Maquin, also a Guatemala national, had begun having seizures roughly eight hours after being taken into custody with her father. Emergency responders measured her temperature at over 105 degrees, according to the Washington Post. She died within 24 hours of arriving at the hospital.
The girl’s family and CBP dispute the details of her death. CBP said that she had reportedly not consumed food or water in several days, but denies allegations from her family that it did not provide food or water during the first eight hours they were detained.
The family and CBP also dispute when the girl was showing signs of illness. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), one of roughly a dozen Congressional Democrats who visited the site following Maquin’s death, said that it was the result of “some very disturbing systematic failures.”
Updated on Wednesday at 7:35 a.m.
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