The Congressional Hispanic Caucus has asked the Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General to expand its investigation into the Customs and Border Protection death of 16-year-old Carlos Gregorio Hernández Vásquez this past May—and refer any findings to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution if needed. “Surveillance video footage demonstrates CBP failed to care for Carlos, and lied about the circumstances around his death,” a statement said.
ProPublica last week released surveillance footage not only showing that border officials’ claim that an agent found Carlos’ body was a lie, but that the indigenous child was likely ignored by staff in his final hours of life. “Per an activity log maintained by the Border Patrol, an agent checked on him three times during the early morning, but reported nothing disturbing about Carlos—despite the fact that he was lying on the floor near the toilet,” legislators write in their letter to the inspector general. “Agents could have only missed Carlos’ emergency if they were not looking.”
Carlos died alone. In the video, he can be seen collapsing next to a bench before stumbling to the toilet, where he later dies. His sleeping cellmate—not an agent—is who later found his body, and only when that teen alerts staff does an agent finally appear on video. “Furthermore, the video surveillance obtained by ProPublica via the Weslaco Police Department is missing four hours of footage that includes the hours when an agent reported doing welfare checks on Carlos and his cellmate,” the legislators continue. “The misrepresentation of how a minor died in U.S. custody and the suppression of video surveillance that holds the truth is a grave offense. DHS OIG must resolve whether CBP deliberately lied to the American people regarding the circumstances surrounding Carlos’ death and whether the agency did so to conceal negligence.”
The caucus said that “If the investigation finds that personnel deliberately lied to the American people, they should be held immediately accountable to the highest degree and if necessary referred to the Department of Justice for prosecution if criminally liable.”
The federal government has in fact already been secretive around the deaths of migrant children under its watch. When Darlyn Cristabel Cordova-Valle died from a heart condition under Health and Human Services watch last September, the administration didn’t publicly disclose her death for eight months, revealing it only after two other kids, including Carlos, died in May after being taken into U.S. custody. "How many children are there that we don't know about?” Families Belong Together chair Jess Morales Rocketto asked at the time.
Carlos—and all these children—need justice. Rep. Bennie Thompson, House Homeland Security Committee chair, has also called on the inspector general to review the ProPublica video, while Rep. Karen Bass said she thought that the circumstances around Carlos’ death are “negligent homicide. Someone needs to be held to account. It is completely unacceptable for a 16-year-old child to die of the flu … that was state-sponsored child abuse.”
