14 December 2018
Washington — A 7-year-old girl (click here) picked up with her father and dozens of other migrants along a remote stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border suffered seizures and spiked a high fever in immigration custody and later died, federal officials said.
An autopsy was scheduled to try to determine what killed the girl, who appeared to be dehydrated and suffering from shock and apparently had not had anything to eat or drink in days, they said.
The girl was found Dec. 6 near Lordsburg, New Mexico, by U.S. Border Patrol agents. She was in custody for about eight hours before she began having seizures, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials said. Emergency medical technicians discovered the girl’s fever was 105.7 degrees Fahrenheit (40.9 degrees Celsius), and she was airlifted to an El Paso, Texas, hospital, where she later died.
Most American parents know such a high fever is deadly. The question is why did the fever occur if she was in custody with her family for eight hours. There should have been adequate water available when the family was found.
Often Border Patrol agents carry bottled water with them to give to the people they find along the border, it just seems odd to me that a young girl this dehydrated would not have received attention by agents that are somewhat cautious about dehydraton in most circumstances.
The results of the autopsy could take weeks, officials said.
The Guatemalan girl’s death comes as increasing numbers of children and families are making the dangerous trek north from Central America and as immigration officials are being increasingly criticized for their treatment of migrants who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border. A review of what happened in the girl’s case will take place, federal officials said....
