Border patrol detained 5 mo. old in freezing cell, denied antibiotics, child now hospitalized [View all]

[CousinIT]

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/adolfoflores/infant-sick-border-patrol-cold

The girl's mother said her daughter got increasingly sick after being held in "freezing" cells.

A 5-month-old girl who traveled with the migrant caravan has been hospitalized with pneumonia after spending five days inside freezing cells operated by border authorities in California, her mother said.

A. Portillo, the girl's mother (who asked to be identified only by her first initial because she is fleeing from an abusive partner), said she jumped a low part of the border fence with her daughter on Dec. 12 near Tijuana before being detained by Border Patrol agents.

The 23-year-old mother said she and her daughter were then placed in holding cells that migrants call hieleras, or iceboxes. The holding cells have been criticized by human rights advocates who describe them as "often poor and in several critical respects identical to those previously found by US courts to be in violation of [Customs and Border Protection's] obligations and prior commitments."

The girl had been taking the antibiotic amoxicillin, but Portillo said she wasn't allowed to keep the medication in detention. She described the temperatures inside the cells as "freezing."

Portillo told agents that her daughter was sick shortly after being detained, but they told Portillo it was normal and that everyone coming into the holding cells was ill. She wasn't allowed to get new medication or see a doctor.

"I said I needed a hospital because her breathing was getting worse," Portillo told BuzzFeed News. "The agents told me I wasn't in a position to be asking for anything and that they didn't tell me to come to the United States."