Details are emerging about the death of a second child in U.S. custody this month, but they may offer more questions than answers. The eight-year-old Guatemalan boy who died Christmas morning while being held by U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been identified as Felipe Gómez Alonzo. Felipe and his father had been in CBP custody since December 18, which is a question mark, because:
Agency guidelines say immigrants generally shouldn’t be detained for more than 72 hours in CBP holding facilities, which are usually smaller and have fewer services than ICE detention centers.
So a child got sick enough to die after a week in a holding facility he shouldn’t have been in for more than 72 hours. CBP says it is going to conduct medical checks of all the children in its custody and is calling on other agencies like the Coast Guard to help. Will they check not just the children but the facilities in which they’re being held, though?
Rep. Joaquin Castro, the chair elect of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said he was “deeply saddened” by the death and called for a congressional investigation, highlighting the Trump administration’s “policy of turning people away from legal ports of entry, otherwise known as metering” and saying that on a recent congressional oversight visit to a CBP facility, “Serious concerns were raised about the condition of CBP detention facilities, and the lack of adequate medical supplies, equipment and resources to properly treat migrants and the agents working there.” Castro also questioned whether other children have died in CBP custody beyond the two we know about this month.