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Felipe Gómez Alonzo, the 8-year-old Guatemalan boy who died in federal immigration custody last month, was buried this past weekend in the remote village he left with his dad in their search for a better life in the United States.
Family members and villagers “held a candlelight vigil, draped his small white coffin with flowers and then carried him to his final resting place,” CBS News reported. Felipe’s body arrived in Guatemala on Saturday, and the next day, he was put into the ground. “Older sister Catarina scratched his name with a stick into a simple concrete headstone.”
The family still doesn’t know the exact circumstances of Felipe’s death, the second child since late last year to die while in federal immigration custody. In a lie-laden tirade, Donald Trump claimed both children “were very sick,” and blamed his political opponents for their deaths. But “the children cleared initial U.S. health screenings,” the Associated Press reported.
Senate Democrats have called on the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General to open an investigation to Felipe’s death, in addition to the probe newly empowered House Democrats have already begun. Earlier this month, a delegation of members visited the New Mexico facility where he was held before his death.
Meanwhile, his loved ones are left reeling from his death. His sister Catarina recalled some of the last words Felipe said to her: "When he left, he said: 'I am a little young now, but when I arrive there, I am going to grow up, I will study and look for a job and I am going to send you money and buy clothes for my mom.’”