Guatemalan Girl Dies in Custody of US Border Patrol

Last Week, a Guatemalan girl died at a remote New México border crossing area after she was detained for 48 hours. The little girl traveled more than 2,000 miles from her remote indigenous village in Northern Guatemala. The girl was seven years old and had even celebrated a birthday on the road to the United States. Although the girl died on December 8, the events started on December 6 when her and her father were detained along with more than 150 other migrants along the New Mexico border. After the two were detained, the father signed a contract explaining that he and his daughter were healthy.

That night around midnight, after the migrants had spent all day in the hot sun, a bus came to pick them up. The bus took about half an hour to get there and only picked up 50 unaccompanied minors to take them away from their parents. Although the girl was not on the bus, she began vomiting and her father said this is when she started to become sick. Around 5 AM that morning, the girl and her father were loaded back onto a bus, and when the bus arrived, her father said the girl was not breathing. The girl’s temperature was around 105 degrees, and the paramedics even had to revive her two times. The girl was rushed to a hospital in El Paso by helicopter and diagnosed with liver failure. Her brain was swelling, and at 12:35 the little girl was pronounced dead with her father by her bedside. The original report from the hospital stated that she died from sepsis shock.

According to CNN, the girl’s father said he was “grateful” for the first responders in Texas and New México. The father said he was giving his daughter enough water and sufficient amounts of food and that the girl was eager to come with him to the border. The girl was “jumping up and down” when her father told her she was going to travel to the United States because they both wanted to escape extreme poverty.

This is just one of many possible tragedies that can happen at the border. Earlier this year, many children were being ripped away from their parents and were being held in different migrant stations across America and some have yet to be reunited with their parents. This is a massive problem and is extremely inhumane. The situation at the border only seems to be getting worse and who knows when the end to these tragedies will come.

By Adam Smith