7-Year-Old Girl Dies in Border Patrol Custody

[Content Note: Child neglect; death; exposure; dehydration.]

Once, twice, three times previously, writing about the detention of children at the southern border, I have noted: Children are "more susceptible to heat illness than adults for many reasons, including a greater surface area to body mass ratio, lower rate of sweating, and slower rate of acclimatization. The prevention of heat illness is based on recognizing and modifying risk factors," like, presumably, not detaining children in inadequate facilities in the desert.

I have been worried sick about children (and adults, like Roxsana Hernandez) dying in Customs and Border Protection custody, and now it has happened. Nick Miroff and Robert Moore at the Washington Post report:

A 7-year-old girl from Guatemala died of dehydration and shock after she was taken into Border Patrol custody last week for crossing from Mexico 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.

...According to CBP records, the girl and her father were taken into custody about 10 p.m. 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."

After a helicopter flight to Providence Hospital in El Paso, the child went into cardiac arrest and "was revived," according to the agency. "However, the child did not recover and died at the hospital less than 24 hours after being transported," CBP said.

The agency did not release the name of the girl or her father, but the father remains in El Paso awaiting a meeting with Guatemalan consular officials, according to CBP. The agency is investigating the incident to ensure appropriate policies were followed, it said.

Food and water are typically provided to migrants in Border Patrol custody, and it wasn't immediately clear Thursday if the girl received provisions and a medical exam before the onset of seizures.

I am heartbroken and enraged by this girl's death.

I also don't understand how this sentence — "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.'" — and this sentence — "Food and water are typically provided to migrants in Border Patrol custody, and it wasn't immediately clear Thursday if the girl received provisions and a medical exam before the onset of seizures." — exist in the same article.

It seems as though CBP is trying to imply that she was already hungry and dehydrated when she arrived in their custody (so it's not their fault), yet simultaneously claim that they aren't sure whether they gave her any food or water during the "more than eight hours" that she was in their custody.

They want us to infer, of course, that her being hungry and dehydrated and overheated (105.7 degrees!) is solely the fault of her father, who dragged her to the border.

But we all know damn well that if that child hadn't been held in CBP custody for 8 hours with no food or water — which CBP has, and her father may not have had, even at home, which is possibly why he left — she'd almost certainly still be alive.

Perhaps even more critically, if she hadn't had a 105.7-degree body temperature, she would almost certainly still be alive. That doesn't happen instantly. No one was paying attention for a very long time if a child, dangerously susceptible to the heat, was literally roasting to her death without intervention.

That she was an immigrant is frankly irrelevant, except insofar as it explains why she was in Customs and Border Protection's custody specifically. What matters is that she was a seven-year-old child in U.S. federal custody and now she is dead.

They took her away from her father, out of his care. In doing so, they assumed responsibility for her well-being. And then she died.

My sincerest condolences to her family. I am so sorry. I am so angry. I am so sad.