By: Ron Nixon, New York Times – Dec. 14, 2018
WASHINGTON — A White House official said on Friday that the Trump administration was not responsible for the death of a 7-year-old Guatemalan girl who died from dehydration last week while in the custody of the Border Patrol.
Officials said the girl, Jakelin Caal Maquin, and her father were among 163 migrants who turned themselves in to the Border Patrol in a remote area of desert in New Mexico, shortly after the group crossed into the United States.
Her death, which is under investigation, has been widely condemned as a consequence of the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration enforcement efforts on the southwest border against caravans of migrants traveling from Central America.
Hogan Gidley, the White House deputy press secretary, called Jakelin’s death “a horrific, tragic situation.”
A reporter asked if the administration would take any responsibility for the death.
“Does the administration take responsibility for a parent taking a child on a trek through Mexico to get to this country?” Mr. Gidley responded. “No.”
Internal investigators at the Department of Homeland Security are looking into whether Border Patrol agents followed proper procedures while Jakelin was in their custody, officials said. An autopsy is expected, but the results may take several weeks, they said. The Washington Post first reported her death on Thursday.
Officials at Customs and Border Protection, which is part of homeland security and which oversees the Border Patrol, told reporters on Friday that the group of migrants were initially held at a remote Border Patrol base. There, officials said, they were checked for health problems, given water and had access to bathrooms.
Officials said Jakelin’s father signed a form saying she did not have any health problems. The document was in English, but officials said Border Patrol agents spoke with the father in Spanish and explained the form to him.
But around 5 a.m. on Dec. 7, while the migrants where being bused to a Border Patrol station in Lordsburg, N.M. — about three hours from where the group was initially apprehended — the father reported that his daughter was sick and had started vomiting.
Around 6:30 a.m., officials said, Jakelin began having seizures and her temperature had climbed to nearly 106 degrees. At the Lordsburg station, Border Patrol agents with medical training tried to help her before she was flown to a hospital in El Paso.
There, she went into cardiac arrest and died. Officials said she also had brain swelling.
Kevin K. McAleenan, the Customs and Border Protection commissioner, said Border Patrol agents did everything they could to save Jakelin’s life.
“The agents involved are deeply affected and empathize with the father over the loss of his daughter,” Mr. McAleenan said in a statement.
Homeland security officials said Jakelin’s death underscored the dangers to migrants who journey to the United States from Central America.
“We cannot stress enough the dangers posed by traveling long distances, in crowded transportation, or in the natural elements through remote desert areas without food, water and other supplies,” Mr. McAleenan said. “No one should risk injury, or even death, by crossing our border unlawfully. This is why I asked Congress on Tuesday to change our laws so that the United States is not incentivizing families to take this dangerous path.”
Several high-profile Democrats joined immigration advocates to rail against the border agency over Jakelin’s death.
“Why did the Commissioner of Customs & Border Protection keep this little girl’s death secret until after he testified before me & Senate Judiciary Committee this week? I will be demanding answers,” Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, wrote on Twitter.
“There are no words to capture the horror of a seven-year-old girl dying of dehydration in U.S. custody,” Hillary Clinton, who unsuccessfully challenged President Trump in 2016, wrote on Twitter. “What’s happening at our borders is a humanitarian crisis.”
Jakelin’s death is the not first time the Trump administration has come under criticism for its treatment of migrant children.
The administration was blasted this year for separating migrant children from their parents as a result of a “zero tolerance” illegal immigration policy at the border.
A government report in October found that the administration had not told key federal agencies about the zero tolerance policy before publicly announcing it. That left front-line officials unprepared to handle the ensuing separations of thousands of children from their families.
Nearly 3,000 children were ultimately separated from their parents, many for weeks or months at a time, though most have since been reunited.
