7-year-old migrant girl taken into Border Patrol custody dies of dehydration, exhaustion

[Yosemito]

Source: Washington Post

"A 7-year-old girl from Guatemala died of dehydration and shock in Border Patrol custody last week after crossing into the United States illegally with her father and a large group of migrants along a remote span of New Mexico desert, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Thursday.


The child’s death, which has not been previously reported, is likely to intensify scrutiny of detention conditions at Border Patrol stations and CBP facilities that are increasingly overwhelmed by large numbers of families with children seeking asylum in the United States.


According to CBP records, the girl and her father were taken into custody at around 10 p.m. on Dec. 6 south of Lordsburg, N.M., as part of a group of 163 people who approached U.S. agents to turn themselves in.
More than eight hours later, the child began having seizures at 6:25 a.m., CBP records show.

Emergency responders who arrived soon after measured her body temperature at 105.7 degrees, and according to a statement from CBP, she “reportedly had not eaten or consumed water for several days.”"
Read the rest of the story on The Washington Post: https://wapo.st/2GhITrT

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/7-year-old-migrant-girl-taken-into-border-patrol-custody-dies-of-dehydration-exhaustion/2018/12/13/8909e356-ff03-11e8-862a-b6a6f3ce8199_story.html

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Donald Trump is a murderer

[sakabatou]

1. More blood on their hands

[gademocrat7]

2. Horrible.

[CatMor]

3. How very sad ....

dont think the despicable trump and his family care.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

4. Not that the Bigot-in-Chief gives a shit.

[dlk]

5. How Hard (or Humane) Would it be to Give Them a Drink of Water?

What about food? Is sadism requirement for these agents?

[pangaia]

6. Humane? We're talking republicans here.

[2naSalit]

9. Probably

unvetted contractors.

[leanforward]

7. Who was negligent?

This would not have happened if the child had stayed with the parent.

Sounds to me like the ICE guys are really tough. Especially to the kids.

Some folks up and down that chain need to be ousted. GDamit, pay attention to the kids.

You treat the children as if they are your own.

[KentuckyWoman]

14. The child wasn't separated from her father according to the article.

[Glimmer of Hope]

8. Oh no.

A bed, water and food for a little girl. Is it that hard?

[wasupaloopa]

10. Why couldn't ICE give the girl food and water? Any of us would have done that as soon as we saw

them.

They treat stray dogs and cats better.

[Turbineguy]

11. That's terrible!

[KentuckyWoman]

12. You may as well alert my post now...

I disagree with you in the strongest terms on this. The article says the family spent days in the Mexican desert without provisions and basically went looking for US Border patrol once they got to the border. I've not seen any reporting that says the Border Patrol was negligent toward the medical situation for this family. Whether or not more could be done will be determined, and it should, however,

The entire situation that causes a family to walk 1000 + miles, put themselves in the hands of smugglers, drug runners, the deadly conditions of days on foot in the desert etc has existed far longer than that racist pig that sits in the Oval Office right now. Yes, he has done incredible harm to the ability of the US to move forward in the most humane way. All of that has to be addressed. To just yell murderer feels good, but it puts the focus on the wrong thing.

[FSogol]

16. Except that they were in custody for 8 hours before the girl began to have

seizures. They should have been given water during that period.

[KentuckyWoman]

17. I don't see anything that says they weren't, and the article implies doing so is normal practice

This group sought out aid from Border Patrol and the article is pretty much assuming it was given. It doesn't say anything about the girl being neglected, or separated from her Dad.

I understand why the assumption is made given the images we've seen this year, but I don't see any reporting anywhere that says the girl's needs were ignored.

[grantcart]

24. Normal practice is to transfer anyone with a fever to the hospital

Thousands of migrants are taken to local hospitals every year.

I don't know why this girl wasn't but some individual who was in charge of supervising their care dropped the ball.

[samnsara]

13. that poor father....

[Solly Mack]

15. Crime against humanity

[SammyWinstonJack]

18. Off to enjoy his 16 day holiday at mar a lago. Descipable Deplorable Murderer.

[Generic Brad]

19. He'll be fed and watered when he is in eventually taken into custody

So will his children, the criminals in his cabinet and the shameful crooks in his orbit. How can they be so inhuman?

[ancianita]

20. Lordsburg's rep is that of a racist city in Southwest NM, according to people I know in Silver City

The people charged with her care -- CBP or otherwise -- need to be named and fired.

[JDC]

21. This makes me sick to my stomach

[elmac]

22. We will all pay for this someday along with all the other dirty deads ameriKa has done

I don't believe in a God but I do believe in karma and karma is going to kick our asses.

[RainCaster]

23. GOP-- you broke it, you own it

So get off your ass and fix it

[laserhaas]

25. Beyond inexplicable & intolerable

[Gore1FL]

26. Well, we sure showed her...

If we build a prison for the Trumps, I bet Mexico would chip in for the perimeter wall.

[NO TO FASCISM]

27. I cry for her, her father, and all in their situation

I wonder how this problem can be solved?

I am an expat who has lived in the Dominican Republic illegally for the last 10 years. I live here because I am a retired person who has to live on an income of $4,000 per month. I can live like a king here compared to New York City. I have been married to a Dominican woman for the last eight years and all she wants is to move to the United States with her three children. She has no idea how difficult life would be on my income. But she is not alone, everyone in her family and all her friends want to know why she does not move to the US. They all think the streets are paved with gold in the US. This is the only reason my wife and I ever argue. We have a good life here, better than most people, and far better then we could live in the USA.

I would guess that all of the immigrants share the same view as my wife and her friends. It is a dream that does not reflect reality. And on occasion, it will lead to a tragedy such as this.

[JudyM]

30. Interesting perspective and post. Welcome to DU!

[NO TO FASCISM]

31. Thank you

[Doreen]

28. If a child that young is dehydrated

and is not drinking water you put her into bed with IV's.

[MadDAsHell]

35. They're trained to patrol the border; highly doubt they're trained to play doctor.

I'm guessing this is the case at most international borders. No country has funding to have doctor's sitting around idly along thousands of miles of border.

[Grasswire2]

29. I wish we knew her first name.

It would be something to say when we remember her. nt

[Talitha]

32. Rest in Peace, little Angel....

[diva77]

33. meanwhile Dump will be heading out for his extended vacation at Jar-0-Lardo,

oblivious to his cruelty while squandering trillions at our expense

[MadDAsHell]

34. "she "reportedly had not eaten or consumed water for several days."

Not sure this one is going to come back on the Border Patrol.

Her having seizures within hours of going into custody is far more likely to do with going days without food or water than anything the Border Patrol did in a span of just a few hours.

And for as much as people hate the Border Patrol, these are civil servants people, just like any other government employee. Normally we worship civil servants.

[workinclasszero]

37. What, they couldn't give a child dying of thrist and hunger a bottle of water?

Or a meal?

Really?

[MadDAsHell]

38. Hopefully they would if they knew the need.

I wonder what was communicated, or if it even could be given the language barrier. I also wonder how much training these folks have beyond, you know, patrolling. Are they trained to and expected to recognize medical emergencies, provide medical care, etc? That would seem odd for someone who is simply watching to make sure people don't cross a border. I doubt that's typical regardless of which border we're talking about.

[haele]

39. Y'know, when I was in the military, we were given basic first aid training.

Including recognizing when people were dehydrated, suffering from heat stroke or otherwise in shock. Dehydration is not too hard to recognize when you actually are looking at a person suffering from it.
As a contractor when I was working shipyards as a manager, I was expected to have enough training to recognize when people were actually sick or injured, so I could send them home and save the company money or liability.

The beat cops at local police departments are given the same basic type of first aid training we were given in the military.

Rule of thumb for most policing agencies is that if you're going to be out on patrol, basic first aid is something you have to know, even if just for yourself or your partner. And if it's a requirement, the Feds re-enforce this sort of training every two/three years, so even just recognizing shock or dehydration is not something your average ICE agent or border patrol agent would be clueless about.

It's pretty obvious they picked these people up, put them in holding, and left them there for processing whenever they felt like it - an 8 hour wait, even if they are processing 160 or so people, is pretty slack and definitely there's some liability issues if family members want to sue for mistreatment.

If that's standard intake procedure for the Border Patrol now, it's far worse than the procedure for most county lock-ups; they at least have medical staff on standby and call in for help if there's too many at intake to handle. The Border Patrol just didn't care, and it shows.

A seven year old girl meant nothing to them.

Haele

[workinclasszero]

36. The blood of innocents is on Trump's hands

And on the hands of the "pro-life" Evangelicals who sit in smug silence as innocent children die under their leader.

[truthisfreedom]

40. ENOUGH!

Make it stop! This administration is making America look like MONSTERS!

[Jedi Guy]

41. I feel like people jumped the gun here in blaming CBP.

Per a story on CNN, the little girl's father has "no complaints" about how he and his daughter were treated, nor about how CBP responded when her condition deteriorated. So it doesn't sound at all like they just stood there and watched her die because they were sadistic, nor is there any indication that they refused her food or water.

But of course, people just assumed a narrative that fit what they already believed, rather than waiting for the facts to come to light. It appears that this was a tragic incident that couldn't be prevented, despite those involved doing their best to save her.