Probe migrant girl’s death: UN

Group that escorts migrant caravans draws more scrutiny

GENEVA, Dec 24, (Agencies): A United Nations human rights expert called on US authorities on Monday to conduct a full and independent investigation into the death of a seven-year-old Guatemalan migrant girl in US custody and to stop detaining children.

Felipe Gonzalez Morales, UN special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, also said the family of Jakelin Caal, from the Mayan indigenous community, should be given access to legal representation in the proceedings in a language they understand.

“Redress to her family should be provided and if any officials are found responsible they should be held accountable,” he said in a statement.

“The government should also address failings within the immigration system, and specifically within the US Customs and Border Patrol agency, to prevent similar situations.”

Caal and her father Nery were in a group of more than 160 migrants who handed themselves in to US border agents in New Mexico on Dec 6 Jakelin developed a high fever while in the custody of US Customs and Border Protection and died two days later at a hospital in El Paso, Texas.

“The US authorities must ensure that an in-depth, independent investigation of the death of Jakelin Ame Caal is conducted,” Gonzalez Morales, who is a Chilean professor of international law, said in the statement.

US officials have said the US Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog will investigate the girl’s death.

Initial news reports said Caal died of dehydration and exhaustion. Later US officials said she had suffered cardiac arrest, brain swelling and liver failure.

Gonzalez Morales called on the Trump administration to halt the detention of children, unaccompanied or with their families, based on their migratory status, and to seek alternatives.

“As repeatedly stated by a series of UN human rights bodies, detention of children based on their migratory status is a violation of international law,” he said.

Detention is detrimental to a child’s well-being, produces long-term severe adverse impacts and exacerbates the

Fleet tweeted Sunday that the fishermen left Porto Limon, Costa Rica, and had been adrift since Dec 1 They said they had fallen asleep while their nets were soaking and trauma that many suffer along their migration journeys, he said.

The US authorities’ treatment of migrants and “the public discourse about immigration in the US”, were of great concern, Gonzalez Morales said.

His two requests to carry out an official visit to the United States to obtain first-hand information had not received a reply, he said

Two weeks into their journey on a blistering hot October day some 2,400 miles from the US border in San Diego, Mexico invited Central American migrants to remain in Southern Mexico and work – marking a pivotal moment for the largest caravan of asylum seekers ever headed to the US.

Irineo Mujica of Pueblo Sin Fronteras told several thousand migrants camped in the central plaza of Arriaga after walking and hitchhiking 60 miles that day that then-President Enrique Pena Nieto was about to leave office, and that Mexico in the past rejected eight of 10 applicants for asylum. He briefly mentioned the US would also try to block their efforts but that the decision was up to the migrants.

Refugee

“We agree that the refugee system is broken? That this is more of the same,” Mujica said of Mexico’s offer.

Applause erupted and the crowd chanted, “Let’s keep going!” ‘’We can do it!”

Rejecting Mexico’s offer was a vote of confidence in Pueblo Sin Fronteras, or People Without Borders, that has escorted large groups of Central Americans to the US border in San Diego, where many claim asylum or other form of protection. It would be the fourth time in two years that the group accompanied a caravan to the same destination, Tijuana, a traditional spot for migrants with a network of shelters and nonprofits to help.

For the migrants, there is safety in numbers when traveling through crimeridden Mexico. Such journeys would be near-impossible without the help of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, a collective of about 40 US and Mexican activists that is most closely associated with the USbound caravan phenomenon. Mujica, a dual US-Mexican citizen who grew

ran out of gas while trying to return.

Both received medical attention onboard. (AP) up in Arizona, is one of their leading voices.

Pueblo Sin Fronteras activists maintain they simply accompany what they call an “exodus” from Central America and want to ensure migrant rights are respected. But they have drawn increasing criticism, even from one-time allies, who say they play a much larger role than they claim, downplay the dangers of such treks, especially for families and small children, and encourage illegal immigration.

Mujica helped organize a march on No 25 that turned violent, with demonstrators hurling rocks at US Border Patrol agents and tearing down a panel of border fencing to get through. US authorities closed the nation’s busiest border crossing for five hours on the Sunday of a Thanksgiving Day weekend and fired tear gas into Mexico, dispersing crowds that sent people, including children, running and screaming.

Esmeralda Siu, who leads a looseknit group of shelters in Tijuana, said Pueblo Sin Fronteras found a receptive audience with migrants who had never tried to go to the US and who know nothing about the law.

“(The migrants) come in desperation and so they hear what they want to hear,” said Siu, coordinator of the Defense of the Migrant Coalition. “Everyone has their own way of doing things, so I don’t want to cast judgment, but it seems like they are putting the migrants at great risk.”

Linda Romero, coordinator of the Juventud 2000 shelter in Tijuana, said Pueblo Sin Fronteras gives migrants “false illusions” about their quest to get legal status in the United States. She said organizers may be well-intentioned but that the large caravans jeopardize the safety of young children.

Alejandro Solalinde – a highly respected Mexican priest recognized for his work with Central American migrants – alleges the group impeded him from warning caravan members that it’s not the time to go to the US border and turned a blind eye to migrant smugglers among the caravans.

“Pueblo Sin Fronteras has no scruples,” he told the Mexican newspaper SinEmbargo.

Missouri governor wants repeal:

When then-Missouri state Sen Mike Parson didn’t agree with a voter-approved law imposing tough regulations on dog breeders, he led a legislative effort to repeal the measure and replace it with a tamer version.

Now eight years later as governor, Parson believes a similar repeal-and-replace effort is necessary for a new voter-approved constitutional amendment revising the way Missouri’s legislative districts are drawn. Beyond that, Parson said in an interview with The Associated Press, it may also be time to raise the bar for initiative petitions to appear on the ballot.

The Republican governor acknowledges that neither of those things may sound good to voters.

“Fundamentally, you think when the people vote you shouldn’t be changing that vote,” Parson told the AP. “But the reality of it is that is somewhat what your job is sometimes, if you know something’s unconstitutional, if you know some of it’s not right.”

Parson, who ascended to chief executive after Republican Gov Eric Greitens resigned in June, will be participating in his first legislative session as governor in 2019. It’s a position that gives him a more powerful voice in shaping state policy, even though he no longer is directly involved in drafting details as he was during his tenure in Legislature, from 2005 to 2017. (AP)