White House defends Border Patrol after death of Guatemalan girl
WASHINGTON: The White House defended the Border Patrol on Friday after a 7-year-old Guatemalan girl died of exhaustion and dehydration while in custody, but the child’s death — and the border agency’s week-long delay in disclosing it — prompted an outcry on Capitol Hill.
The case intensified scrutiny of Border Patrol detention practices and raised questions about whether agents’ negligence contributed to the death. It also sparked concerns that the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has funnelled migrants into more dangerous areas along the border.
Homeland Security officials said they had launched an inspector general’s investigation into the death and whether regulations were followed, and were awaiting results of an autopsy to determine the cause of death.
Hogan Gidley, the deputy White House press secretary, called the girl’s death “a horrific, tragic situation” and “100 per cent preventable.”
But he blamed Congress, and especially Democrats, for not passing what he called “some common-sense laws to disincentivise people” from crossing the border illegally.
Gidley also placed responsibility for the girl’s death on her father, rather than any consequence of policy decisions.
“Does the administration take responsibility for a parent taking a child on a trek through Mexico to get to this country?” Gidley said. “No.”
The girl, whose name has not been released, was with her father and 161 other migrants who crossed into a remote, rugged part of New Mexico last week. They were about 90 miles north of the border around 9:15 pm on December 6 when they turned themselves in to three Border Patrol agents.