McCain replacement Kyl resigning from Senate at end of year
U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl will resign Dec. 31, setting up a second appointment by Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to the seat once occupied by the late John McCain, the governor announced Friday.
Ducey is required under law to name another Republican to the seat. A replacement to the Senate seat “will be announced in the near future,” according to the governor’s office.
Kyl’s letter to Ducey, informing him of his resignation, was dated Wednesday.
A 7-year-old Guatemalan girl who was detained by Border Patrol agents after crossing the southern border into the United States last week died about a day later after suffering from a high fever and seizures, according to federal immigration authorities, who said the father was ultimately at fault.
The girl was in U.S. custody for more than 11 hours after crossing into New Mexico on Dec. 6 with a group of 163 migrants, including her father.
She began vomiting, was determined to have a 105.7-degree fever, and then flown to a hospital in El Paso, Texas, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The girl, identified as Jakelin Caal Maquin, went into cardiac arrest at Providence Children’s Hospital, but was revived before dying a short time later, according to DHS.
A Customs and Border Protection official said Friday that the girl was given a cursory, visual medical screening by agents when the group was initially detained. He said water and food were available throughout their stay, but could not confirm whether the girl had any.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to fully explain the details of the girl’s death, said the father signed a form indicating his daughter had no medical problems, and only alerted Border Patrol agents when she started suffering seizures while being transported on a bus from one Border Patrol station to another.
The DHS inspector general has opened an investigation into the case. But DHS officials made clear that such tragedies will happen when so many people make the long and dangerous trek to enter the U.S. illegally.
“It’s heart-wrenching. And my heart goes out to the family,” Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Friday on “Fox & Friends.”
“This is just a very sad example of the dangers of this journey. This family chose to cross illegally. We’ll continue to look into the situation, but again, I cannot stress enough how dangerous this journey is when migrants choose to come here illegally.”
While immigration and human rights groups blasted the Trump administration over another tragedy along the southern border, the Democratic National Committee released a statement decrying “an escalation in the cruel treatment of immigrants” that started with the administration’s “zerotolerance” policy that led to thousands of separated families along the border this summer.
The Los Angeles-based Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights said migrants, like those who were tear-gassed by CBP agents near Tijuana, are “seeking refuge in our country, not a coffin.”
And Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said he is not willing to accept CBP’s claims that they can’t properly care for the waves of migrants reaching the U.S. because their facilities are not designed to accommodate families. Jadwat said the agency has received huge increases in its budget in recent years, but that money goes to enforcement, not the protection of migrants in custody.
“I guess the question is, ‘What is their priority?’ ” Jadwat said. “The response to many, many reports and complaints and court cases over … border detention has not been to improve the situation, but instead to deny the problem.”