A 7-Year-Old Girl Died of Dehydration Shortly After Being Taken Into Border Patrol Custody
Update, 12/14, 11 a.m.: The Associated Press reports that an official from the Guatemalan foreign ministry has identified the 7-year-old girl as Jackeline Caal and her father, 29, as Nery Caal.
Original post, 12/14, 9:30 a.m.: Last week, a 7-year-old girl from Guatemala was taken into Border Patrol custody along with her father and, shortly thereafter, died of dehydration and shock, according to the Washington Post.
The two were crossing into the United States from Mexico illegally and were taken into custody as part of a group of people who turned themselves into U.S. agents. The Post reports that according to records from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the girl and her father were taken in on Dec. 6 around 10 P.M. and the girl started having seizures the next morning, around 6:25 A.M. She had a temperature of 105.7 degrees and "reportedly had not eaten or consumed water for several days." The 7-year-old was then flown to a hospital in El Paso, where she went into cardiac arrest, was revived, and later died.
Food and water are usually provided to migrants in custody, though it's unclear if she received sustenance, or a medical exam, before her seizures started. The agency is currently investigating the death, and a Customs and Border Protection spokesman named Andrew Meehan told the Post, "Border Patrol agents took every possible step to save the child’s life under the most trying of circumstances. As fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, we empathize with the loss of any child."
There is no autopsy yet, according to Customs and Border Protection, but physicians at the hospital listed her cause of death as fever, dehydration, and septic shock.
The ACLU has responded to news of this death, tweeting, "This is a horrific, indefensible tragedy. What’s worse is that it is far from the first death at the hands of DHS. If this isn’t the America we want to be, now is the time to be loud about it."
The ACLU Border Rights Center also tweeted, "This tragedy represents the worst possible outcome when children are held in inhumane conditions. We call for a rigorous investigation into how this tragedy happened and serious reforms to prevent future deaths."
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