House Democrats said Wednesday they will investigate why two migrant children died within a month in government custody.
The promise, issued by incoming House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., follows the death of Felipe Alonzo-Gomez, an 8-year-old Guatemalan child who died Christmas Eve at a New Mexico medical center while in federal custody.
Alonzo-Gomez, who had been detained with his father on Dec. 18 near El Paso, Texas, was diagnosed with a common cold and fever just the day before.
“After the new Democratic Majority begins, the House will hold hearings on this young boy’s death and the death of seven-year-old Jakelin Caal earlier this month — as well as the conditions under which thousands of children are being held,” Hoyer wrote in a statement Wednesday. “I pray for comfort for the families of these children who lost their lives, and I urge the Department of Homeland Security to provide Congress with all the information the public deserves to know and to take action to prevent such tragedies from recurring.”
“House Democrats will not stand idly by and watch as our nation’s most fundamental values are eroded, while innocent children are held like prisoners in cages and their lives placed at risk,” the Maryland Democrat said.
Caal, a 7-year-old Guatemalan girl, died earlier this month in El Paso, Texas, from what is suspected to be a combination of septic shock, fever, and dehydration shortly after she, her father, and about 160 other migrants were detained on Dec. 6 by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents near New Mexico’s southern border.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the likely next House speaker, also called on DHS’s Office of Inspector General to expand the probe it is undertaking into Caal’s death to include Alonzo-Gomez. DHS’s internal watchdog was aware of his death as of Tuesday, and Border Patrol’s Office of Professional Responsibility will also conduct a review.
“The tragic death of an innocent child on Christmas Day breaks the hearts of all,” the California Democrat said via a statement. “We all have a moral responsibility to ensure all children of God are treated with compassion and decency. The death now of two children in U.S. custody is unconscionable.”
DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Wednesday said she would be traveling to the border this week “to see first-hand the medical screenings and conditions at Border Patrol stations.”
“I am proud of the lifesaving work the men and women of the Border Patrol do every day, but we do not currently have the resources we need to execute the mission as directed by Congress,” Nielsen wrote. “To those in Congress who continue to refuse to take action to address the loopholes that cause a flood of humanity to travel north and place children at risk, I once again call on you to do your job, protect vulnerable populations, secure our borders, and provide the men and women of DHS the authorities and resources we need to address this crisis.”
