Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials are reportedly blocking members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) from interviewing the border agents who were involved in the detention of Jakelin Ameí Rosmery Caal Maquin, the seven-year-old Guatemalan child who tragically died while in Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody.
“DHS spokesperson Katie Waldman defended the department's refusal,” Buzzfeed reported, “noting that there is an ongoing investigation and that several top Border Patrol officials have already been made available. She also said the proper agency to investigate is DHS's inspector general, not Congress.”
This is some straight-up bullshit, and this false claim from administration officials that federal legislators—whose jobs include conducting oversight—do not have the right to conduct oversight and interview employees of a federal department is just one example of how departments under the Trump administration have been unleashed.
CBP should be interested in fully cooperating in any and all investigations into this child’s horrific death because it happened under the agency’s watch. If this blockading doesn’t smell right, it’s because something probably isn’t right. On Tuesday, a group of Congressional Democrats, including Rep. Joaquin Castro, are visiting the CBP facility where Jakelin and her dad were held, and are pledging to use their new powers next month to get the answers they need.
Castro, according to Buzzfeed, “warned that if the agents are not made available during the Tuesday inspection, they can expect to be called before Congress as soon as Democrats take control of the House in January.”