Father disputes claim on migrant girl’s death
U.S. Border Patrol say Guatemalan child had not eaten, drunk for days
EL PASO, TEXAS— The father ofJakelin Caal Maquin, the 7-yearold Guatemalan girl who died in U.S. custody this month, disputed on Saturday the assertion by authorities that his daughter had not eaten or had water for several days before being detained by border patrol.
Jakelin’s father, Nery Gilberto Caal Cruz, “made sure she was fed and had sufficient water,” Caal Cruz’s lawyers said in a statement read by Ruben Garcia, director of a shelter in El Paso that serves recent border crossers. The shelter, Annunciation House, is caring for Caal Cruz. The girl’s family said it was seeking an investigation of her death. The family’s lawyers also pointed out that the El Paso County Medical Examiner’s Office, which is conducting Jakelin’s autopsy, had not yet released a cause of death.
The dispute reflects a ratcheting tension over the girl’s death. Immigration activists say the expansion of the border patrol under U.S. President Donald Trump is pushing immigrants into more remote territory, making crossing far more perilous. At least 412 migrants were found dead along the southwest border in 2017, up from 398 the previous year.
The Trump administration has said its policies did not contribute to Jakelin’s death, claiming instead that Caal Cruz was to blame for taking his daughter on the journey.
More details are emerging about the hours before Jakelin’s death, which was first reported by the Washington Post. In a statement, border patrol defended its handling of the case, contending that its agents did “everything in their power” to provide emergency medical care for Jakelin. Border patrol had said in an earlier statement that Jakelin “reportedly had not eaten or consumed water for several days.”
Jakelin and her father were detained at 9:15 p.m. Dec. 6, border patrol said, as part of a group of more than 160 migrants who had crossed the border in a remote stretch of desert near Antelope Wells, in the Bootheel region of New Mexico. Border patrol said Caal Cruz had claimed in an English-language form that his daughter was in good health.
Caal Cruz’s lawyers said he does not understand English, and it was “unacceptable” for him to have had to sign forms in a language he does not speak.
Border patrol said Caal Cruz had informed agents that his daughter was sick and vomiting while on a bus to New Mexico, at 5 a.m. Dec. 7.
At 6:30 a.m., when the bus arrived there, Caal Cruz told agents that Jakelin was not breathing.
Jakelin went into cardiac arrest later that morning and was revived. Caal Cruz was driven to the hospital and was at Jakelin’s side when she died on Dec. 8.