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Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
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Guatemalan boy, 8, dies after week in US Customs custody
Print Edition
US Customs and Border Protection has ordered medical checks on every child in its custody after an 8-year-old boy from Guatemala died.
It is the second death of an immigrant child in the agency’s care this month.
The death came during an ongoing dispute over border security and with a partial government shutdown under way over US President Donald Trump’s request for border wall funding.
The boy, identified by Guatemalan authorities as Felipe Gomez Alonzo, had been in CBP’s custody with his father, Agustin Gomez, since December 18.
The CBP said an agent first noticed the boy had a cough and “glossy eyes” about 9am on Monday. He was eventually hospitalized twice and died just before midnight. Privacy laws cover the cause of death.
The agency “is considering options for surge medical assistance” from the Coast Guard and may request help from the US Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Defense, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
A CBP spokesman could not answer how many children are in the agency’s custody. But with border crossings surging, CBP processes thousands of children, both alone and with their parents, every month.
Immigration advocates and human rights groups sharply criticized CBP in the wake of Felipe’s death.
The body of 7-year-old Jakelin Caal, who died earlier this month, was returned last week to her village in Guatemala for burial.
US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said yesterday that the agency has more than 1,500 emergency medical technicians on staff and that officers are taking dozens of sick children to hospitals every day.
“This is an extraordinarily rare occurrence,” McAleenan said. “It’s been more than a decade since we’ve had a child pass away anywhere in a CBP process, so this is just devastating for us.”
Margaret Huang, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said the Trump administration’s “policies of cruelty toward migrants and asylum-seekers at the border must cease immediately before any more children are harmed.”
Felipe and his father were detained by CBP for about a week, an unusually long time.
CBP typically detains immigrants for no more than a few days when they cross the border before either releasing them or turning them over to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement for longer-term detention.
Agency guidelines say immigrants generally shouldn’t be detained for more than 72 hours in CBP holding facilities, which are usually smaller and have few services.
CBP said it apprehended Felipe and his father about 5 kilometers away from an official port of entry, the Paso del Norte bridge connecting El Paso and Juarez, Mexico. They were held at a processing center for almost two days then taken to the El Paso Border Patrol station.
CBP said it moved them to Alamogordo on Sunday “because of capacity levels at the El Paso station.” Alamogordo is about 145km from El Paso.
Oscar Padilla, the Guatemalan consul in Phoenix, said he was told by the boy’s father in a telephone interview that the two had been traveling from their home in Nenton, a village about 450km from Guatemala City. They were planning to go to Johnson City, Tennessee.
CBP promised “an independent and thorough review of the circumstances,” and the Guatemalan foreign ministry called for an investigation “in accordance with due process.”
Democratic members of Congress and immigration advocates sharply criticized CBP’s handling of Jakelin Caal’s death and questioned whether border agents could have prevented it by spotting symptoms of distress or calling for an evacuation by air ambulance sooner.
Xochitl Torres Small, a Democrat who will represent the district starting in January, called for a thorough investigation into the children’s deaths and more medical resources along the border.
“This is inexcusable,” Torres Small said. “Instead of immediately acting to keep children and all of us safe along our border, this administration forced a government shutdown over a wall.”
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