Global Courant 2023-05-19 02:26:25
A little girl from Panama born with heart problems died Wednesday while in Border Patrol custody, the second death of a Latin American child in US government custody in two weeks.
The 8-year-old girl and her family were being held in Harlingen, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, one of the busiest immigration corridors, the US Customs and Border Protection agency said. The agency has faced overcrowding at its facilities, fueled by a surge in migrants ahead of the expiry last week of a key immigration regulation linked to the Covid 19 pandemic.
The girl experienced “a medical emergency” and emergency services were called for her. They took her to a hospital where she was pronounced dead, the agency said.
An autopsy has been ordered, said Jesus T. “Chuy” Garcia, Jr., the judge presiding over the case.
The girl’s name was Anadith Tanay Reyes Alvarez, Honduran Consul José Leonardo Navas said. He said she is from Panama, although her parents are from Honduras. The consul said the girl was traveling with her father, mother and two older siblings.
According to the father who spoke with the consul, the girl was born with heart problems and was operated on three years ago in Panama.
The Office of Internal Affairs, Customs and Border Protection will investigate the deaths of the girls in Texas, and the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security.
Her death comes a week after a 17-year-old Honduran boy, Ángel Eduardo Maradiaga Espinoza, who was traveling alone, died while in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Last week, the Border Patrol began releasing immigrants into the U.S. without the requirement to appear in immigration court. Instead they were instructed to report to an immigration office within 60 days. The move saves Border Patrol agents time-consuming processing paperwork, allowing them to free up space in holding facilities. A federal judge in Florida ordered an end to early releases.
The Border Patrol had 28,717 people in custody on May 10, the day before pandemic-related asylum restrictions expired, double the number from two weeks earlier. By Sunday, the number had fallen to 22,259, but is still extremely high.
The Border Patrol has a network of immigration processing stations and facilities throughout the southwest border. On its website, the agency says it has a maximum capacity of 5,000 people, although the agency has been rapidly expanding capacity in recent months.
The average time in custody on Sunday was 77 hours, five hours more than the maximum allowed under agency policy.
During the Trump administration, the deaths of children in U.S. custody became a point of debate, calling into question the administration’s efforts to protect the most vulnerable immigrants at a time when the U.S. was seeing an increase in the number of families with children coming to the southern border. ./ VOA
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