HOUSTON — The deaths of two migrant children in just over two weeks raised strong new doubts Wednesday about the ability of U.S. border authorities to care for the thousands of minors arriving as part of a surge of families trying to enter the country.
An 8-year-old boy identified by Guatemalan officials as Felipe Gomez Alonzo died in U.S. custody at a New Mexico hospital on Christmas Eve after suffering a cough, vomiting and fever, authorities said. The cause is under investigation, as is the death Dec. 8 of another Guatemalan child, 7-year-old Jakelin Caal.
“There is a real failure here that we all need to reckon with,” said incoming Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat elected last month to represent El Paso in Congress. “We need to know how many other Jakelins and Felipes there have been.”
Felipe had been detained by U.S. border authorities for a week and moved between facilities with his father, officials said. The last place the boy was held — after the first of two visits to the hospital on the day he died — was a highway checkpoint in New Mexico.
By its own regulations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection is supposed to detain people for no more than 72 hours before turning them over to other government agencies responsible for long-term detention. CBP facilities are typically spartan, with food, water and blankets but often no medical professionals, teachers or some of the other resources longer-term detention centers offer.
Similarly, Jakelin was first held with her father at a small base in rural New Mexico that did not have running water, according to Democrats who visited it after the girl’s death.
The U.S. government’s system for detaining migrants crossing the border is severely overtaxed. Authorities would not say how many children CBP is now holding. But the U.S. is seeing a sharp rise in families with children.
Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen on Wednesday blamed “a system that prevents parents who bring their children on a dangerous illegal journey from facing consequences for their actions.” Her department argues that it must detain more people to discourage other Central American families from trying to migrate.
In the wake of the deaths, Nielsen asked the Coast Guard to study CBP’s medical programs and announced a “more thorough” assessment of all children who enter the agency’s custody.
Also, border authorities said that they completed health checks in reaction to Felipe’s death on nearly all children in their custody. They did not disclose the results.