The Department of Homeland Security on Friday defended Border Patrol agents’ handling of a child’s death while in federal custody after the department was criticized for failing to publicize it immediately.
Officials told reporters Friday that although the child died while in their custody, the father of the seven-year-old Guatemalan girl had told agents she was not sick at the time they were found in the New Mexico desert.
“The initial screening revealed no evidence. The father claimed the child was in good health,” a CBP official said in a media call.
“The father signed a form: I-779,” a DHS official said, referring to a document used to gauge the wellness of recently apprehended migrants.
One of the four Border Patrol agents who was on the scene translated the English form into Spanish for the father, and then wrote down his spoken answers, the CBP official said. The father responded “no” to every question regarding medical issues with his daughter.
The father and daughter and the group they were traveling in were initially taken into custody at 10:30 p.m. local time, which was when they were looked over by agents.
The large group had to be bused from a forward-operating post, which officials did not share how many people could be held there, to the closest station, approximately three hours away, according to CBP.
“No one lives out there,” the CBP official said. He also said there was no medical staff on scene.
It was not until 4 a.m. — while the father and daughter were on a bus to the local Border Patrol station — that he reported the child did not appear to be well.
The CBP official said agents could not do anything for the child until they arrived at the station. It’s not clear whether the child started having seizures on the bus or once she arrived at the station.
Medical staff and a helicopter transport were at the station when they arrived. Upon arrival, the seven-year-old was not breathing. She was revived twice and flown to a children’s hospital in El Paso, Texas.
The unnamed child is believed to have died from septic shock, fever, and dehydration, according to an initial hospital evaluation. The girl’s father is in El Paso and is expected to meet with officials at the Guatemalan consulate.
CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility is investigating the incident.
