Girl's death exposes medical inadequacies at US border

SAN DIEGO — The recent deaths of an 8-year-old Panamanian girl and a 17-year-old boy from Honduras who were under US government supervision have again raised questions about how prepared authorities are to handle medical emergencies suffered by migrants arriving in the US, especially as agencies struggle with massive overcrowding at facilities along the southern border.

Anadith Tanay Reyes Alvarez became unresponsive on what was at least a third visit to medics Wednesday at a Border Patrol station in Harlingen, Texas, and died later in a hospital, US Customs and Border Protection said. The girl had complained that day of vomiting and stomach pain.

She died on her family's ninth day in custody; the most time allowed is 72 hours under agency policy.

The family told agents that the girl had a history of heart problems and sickle cell anemia, the CBP acknowledged in its second statement on the death. She was diagnosed with influenza on the family's sixth day in custody.

The CBP published a detailed account on Sunday, confirming key aspects of what the girl's mother said two days earlier in an interview with The Associated Press. It initially published only a brief statement.

Mabel Alvarez Benedicks told the AP that agents repeatedly ignored pleas to hospitalize her medically fragile daughter as she felt pain in her bones, struggled to breathe and was unable to walk. She said her daughter was finally taken in an ambulance after falling limp and unconscious and bleeding from the mouth.

Agents said her daughter's diagnosis of influenza did not require hospital care, according to the mother.

The girl's death came a week after 17-year-old Angel Eduardo Maradiaga Espinoza of Honduras died in US Health and Human Services Department's custody. He was traveling alone.

A rush to the border before pandemic-related asylum limits known as Title 42 expired brought extraordinary pressure. The Border Patrol took an average of 10,100 people into custody a day in the second week of May compared to a daily average of 5,200 in March.

The Border Patrol had 28,717 people in custody on May 10, one day before pandemic asylum restrictions expired, according to a court filing. By Sunday, the custody count dropped 23 percent to 22,259, still historically high.

The custody capacity is about 17,000, according to a government document last year, and the administration has been adding temporary giant tents like one in San Diego that opened in January with room for about 500 people.

Meanwhile, the FBI and Tohono O'odham Nation police are investigating the fatal shooting of a tribal member by US Border Patrol agents in southern Arizona.

Customs and Border Protection officials said agents from the Ajo Border Patrol station were involved in a fatal shooting on the Tohono O'odham reservation near Ajo around 10 pm Thursday.

They said the incident is under review by Customs and Border Protection's Office of Professional Responsibility. But they haven't released any additional information.

Agencies Via Xinhua