Mother of ICE victim sues city
The mother of a migrant toddler who died shortly after being released from the nation’s largest family detention centre sued the tiny Arizona city yesterday that for years was paid by the US government to run the facility in name only.
The lawsuit from Yazmin Juarez, of Guatemala, alleges that her 1-year-old daughter, Mariee, developed a respiratory illness at the South Texas Family Residential Centre in Dilley, Texas, and medical staff provided inadequate treatment before releasing her three weeks later. The lawsuit targets Eloy, Arizona, which collected US$438,000 (NZ$642,000) a year from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to officially run the Texas facility for four years even though the city is roughly 1400km away. Eloy then paid the private prison operator CoreCivic to operate Dilley, in an arrangement questioned by ICE’s own lawyers.
Mariee’s death in May underscored the complaints advocates have long had about medical care for detained immigrants, as the Trump administration has sought to detain more migrant parents and children for longer times.
At least nine infants under one year of age are currently detained at Dilley, according to lawyers who work with migrant families detained there. Legal groups filed a complaint this week with the Department of Homeland Security about what it described as an ‘‘alarming increase’’ in detained infants.
Democrats in Congress have called for investigations into Mariee’s death as well as other recent incidents, including a woman delivering a stillborn baby while in custody last week and the deaths of two children detained by the Border Patrol in December after they crossed the US-Mexico border.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to comment on Juarez’s lawsuit, but said it takes the welfare of detainees ‘‘very seriously.’’
‘‘ICE is committed to ensuring the welfare of all those in the agency’s custody, including providing access to necessary and appropriate medical care,’’ the agency said.
The lawsuit alleges that Mariee developed a severe fever a week after entering Dilley on March 5, 2018. As her mother repeatedly tried to seek medical treatment, the lawsuit alleges medical staff at Dilley misdiagnosed Mariee’s illness and did not prescribe the correct medication, before releasing both mother and daughter on March 25 and clearing them to travel.
Juarez took Mariee to an emergency room almost immediately, the lawsuit alleges. She remained hospitalised until she died in May.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement opened the facility in 2014, during the administration of former President Barack Obama, so it could detain more parents and children together during a previous surge of migrant families trying to enter the United States.
ICE used Eloy to expedite the opening with so many migrants coming into the system. The agency modified an existing detention agreement with Eloy to quickly open the Texas facility.
Under the setup, ICE paid the Arizona city several million dollars per year, and it in turn funnelled the money to the private prison company that ran the facility.