The chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus is rightfully calling the Trump administration’s failure to report the death of a detained 10-year-old migrant girl for months a cover-up. “We were never told that this girl died in September of last year,” Congressman Joaquin Castro told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes. “So for eight months, the Congress and public didn’t know about this. That, to me, is a cover-up.”
The child, since identified as Darlyn Cristabel Cordova-Valle, died on September 29 at a children’s hospital while in Office of Refugee Resettlement custody. Health and Human Services, which oversees ORR, claimed “that the girl had a history of congenital heart defects,” and that, "following a surgical procedure, complications left the child in a comatose state.”
But the Trump administration only disclosed that Darlyn had died under U.S. watch following the deaths of two other migrant children this month. In fact, Hayes points out that when former Department of Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen testified in front of Congress last March, she specifically noted the deaths of children in CBP custody, but did not clarify other agencies, like ORR. “It seems like a notable evasion,” Hayes said.
“That’s right,” Castro responded. “There’s no way that the secretary of DHS wouldn’t know about a death that was handled by ORR, and if the secretary didn’t know that, then the administration is completely incompetent.” The Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Sen. Elizabeth Warren have been among the leaders calling for investigations into these deaths as advocates worry aloud if there are other deaths the administration has not yet disclosed.
Six migrant children have now died after being taken into U.S. custody since September, and that number increases to seven after including the death of 19-month-old Mariee Juarez a year ago, who died weeks after being released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. These are the deaths that we know of. This is unprecedented, and as Castro notes, instead of directing taxpayer funding “on helping make sure that people don’t die in their custody,” the Trump administration is “dedicating it to a wall.”
“Many of us in Congress have gone out and visited ORR sites, Border Patrol sites, processing centers, and what we found is that these places are woefully underprepared to deal with migrants and even agents who come into emergency situations,” Castro continued. “So immediately, they need to be resourced, people need to be medically trained on how to handle these emergencies, and how to spot medical emergencies.” This is the crisis.