Congressional Hispanic Caucus leaders said during a Tuesday press conference that they will be calling on the Health and Human Services and Homeland Security watchdogs to open a full investigation into the tragic death of a 16-year-old Guatemalan teen who this week was found dead in Customs and Border Protection custody.
“Yesterday morning, Carlos Gregorio Hernández Vásquez died in DHS custody—the fifth death in custody in the last 6 months,” said Hispanic Caucus leader and Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro. “Five children are dead on the watch of the United States government during that time. Let that sink in for a minute. This is outrageous and it’s unacceptable. Enough is enough.”
What’s known so far is that Carlos crossed the border on May 13 and was detained for nearly a week at the Rio Grande Valley Sector's Central Processing Center, in apparent violation of law stating that border officials aren’t supposed to detain minors past 72 hours. Carlos began complaining of not feeling well on May 19, the same day he was moved to a second facility. He would be dead by the next day. “How did Carlos go from a flu diagnosis to being found dead only one hour after a welfare check?” asked California Rep. Raul Ruiz.
Immigrant rights advocates have noted that no migrant children had died in federal immigration custody for a decade, until the Trump administration. In addition to calling for federal investigations and saying that he would introduce legislation to better ensure the well-being of migrants, Ruiz slammed administration officials for failing to take any responsibility for these deaths. “It is absolutely zero, zero legitimate, it is a shunning of moral responsibility. It is the neglect of one's own consciousness that they try to bring reasons as to why it's not their responsibility if a child dies.”
California Rep. Nanette Barragán noted that when former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was questioned in March on how many children have died while in federal immigration custody, she replied, "So far this [fiscal] year we’ve had three.” An astounded Barragán shot back, "So far? Madam Secretary, are you expecting more children to die?" That’s exactly what’s happened, and by not doing more to prevent these deaths, this administration has innocent blood on its hands.
“It‘s Congress’s responsibility to provide oversight, and it’s our job to work to prevent these deaths and hold the administration accountable,” Castro continued. The Trump administration, he said, is “concealing the truth of these atrocities to the American people. They are blatantly abusing power and children are dying because of it. Their level of neglect borders on criminality. At the rate this administration is going, Carlos will not be the last child to die at the border this summer.”