Next-door neighbors bring the casket which contains the body of Jakelin Caal Maquin into her grandparents’ house in San Antonio Secortez, Guatemala. The 7-year-old lady passed away while in the custody of the U.S. Border Patrol.
Oliver de Ros/AP.
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Oliver de Ros/AP.
Next-door neighbors bring the casket which contains the body of Jakelin Caal Maquin into her grandparents’ house in San Antonio Secortez, Guatemala. The 7-year-old lady passed away while in the custody of the U.S. Border Patrol.
Oliver de Ros/AP.
The secretary of homeland security is taking a trip to the Texas border town where an 8-year-old migrant from Guatemala was apprehended prior to passing away in U.S. custody the day prior to Christmas.
Kirstjen Nielsen currently promised enhancements in healthcare after 2 migrant kids passed away in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Security this month. Nielsen is checking out El Paso, Texas, and Yuma, Ariz., on Friday and Saturday, according to a DHS authorities, and conference with Border Patrol representatives and regional healthcare service providers.
Eight-year-old Felipe Gomez-Alonzo had the influenza when he passed away on Monday, according to an autopsy by the New Mexico medical detective Authorities state 7-year-old Jakelin Caal Maquin, who passed away 3 weeks earlier, was dehydrated and had comparable signs.
Both kids originated from Guatemala with their daddies and crossed the border unlawfully. Their deaths have actually raised brand-new concerns about the quality of healthcare at Border Patrol processing centers.
However pediatricians on the border state they have actually been raising comparable issues for many years.
” It’s not a location for a well kid, much less an ill kid,” stated Marsha Griffin, a pediatrician in Brownsville, Texas, and spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Migration authorities seldom enable visitors inside processing centers near the border. However Griffin did get access to a few of them while performing research study for the AAP, and she remembers visiting one center in South Texas in 2016.
” We passed mounds of teddy bears and security blankets that were drawn from the kids since they may have scabies or lice,” Griffin stated. “The lights are on 24 hours a day. The kids sleep on thin mats on the flooring with just a Mylar blanket.”
Record varieties of migrant households
Federal authorities state they are rushing to look after a record variety of migrant kids and households, much of them getting away from Central America and looking for asylum in the U.S.
” This is simply ravaging for us,” stated Kevin McAleenan, the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Security, in an interview previously today with CBS Today
” We have actually overcome 1,500 lifesaver that have actually been co-trained as police officers. They work every day to safeguard individuals that enter into our custody,” McAleenan stated. “We’re doing lots of medical facility journeys each and every single day with kids that have fevers or manifest other medical conditions.”
Up and down the border, volunteer physicians and nurses are likewise having a hard time to look after migrant moms and dads and kids after they have actually been launched from federal custody.
” We feel overloaded,” stated Marcela Wash, a nurse in San Diego who is collaborating medical screenings and look after migrants at regional shelters. Wash informed member station KPBS that a few of these migrants are currently ill when they’re launched from CBP custody.
” They come by not having actually bathed for 3 or 4 days, nevertheless numerous days they have actually remained in detention,” Wash stated. “A few of them get here with upper breathing issues, queasiness, throwing up.”
Pediatricians state migrant kids would take advantage of earlier medical screenings.
” In a kid, an infection or a medical condition can become worse within hours,” stated Carlos Gutierrez, a pediatrician in El Paso.
Gutierrez is among about 2 lots regional physicians and nurses who are providing totally free medical examinations at regional shelters. However that is just after migrant kids and moms and dads have actually been launched from Border Patrol custody, as numerous as 5 or 6 days after they have actually crossed the border.
When the variety of migrant kids surged back in 2014, regional physicians and nurses were enabled to provide these screenings as quickly as they came to Border Patrol centers, Gutierrez stated. He intends to have the ability to do that once again.
” It’s a much better possibility people avoiding the disaster if we see them previously,” Gutierrez stated. “If we’re enabled to act, things such as the death of the 2 kids that we have actually become aware of … they most likely would not have actually taken place. Those are needless.”
