Report: Father of Guatemalan Child Who Died in U. S. Custody Refused Medical Treatment legalinsurrection.com/2018/12/report…
“Smugglers often charge less than half the price if a child goes along” and families count on being released quickly
Back in 2014, then-president Obama and his administration were alarmed by the huge number of unaccompanied minors flooding into the U. S. From October 2013 to September 2014, a whopping 52,000 unaccompanied children were apprehended by border control.
Sounds familiar 🤔
The problem was so severe, that Obama officially warned parents in South American countries to stop sending their unaccompanied children to the U. S. He assured them that the children would be deported back to their country of origin.
The problem was so severe, that Obama officially warned parents in South American countries to stop sending their unaccompanied children to the U. S. He assured them that the children would be deported back to their country of origin.
“Our message absolutely is don’t send your children unaccompanied, on trains or through a bunch of smugglers,” said Obama. “We don’t even know how many of these kids don’t make it, and may have been waylaid into sex trafficking or killed because they fell off a train.
“Do not send your children to the borders,” he said. “If they do make it, they’ll get sent back. More importantly, they may not make it.”
The father of the Guatemalan child who died Christmas Eve denied further medical treatment from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents after the child vomited following an initial examination from doctors, a spokesman from the DHS said.
Government officials provided further details, including the startling disclosure of the father’s behavior, regarding the timeline of the child’s deteriorating condition.
According to officials, the 8-year-old boy, Felipe Gomez Alonzo, was given multiple medical examinations by doctors before being released with prescription medications.
Following the child’s first discharge from the hospital, both he and the father were put into a temporary holding facility where agents were aware of the child’s illness and provided the child with his medication.
A few hours after the father and boy entered the facility, the child complained of being nauseous and later vomited.
It was at this point the father declined further medical treatment for his son and told officials he “had been feeling better,” an official said.
It was at this point the father declined further medical treatment for his son and told officials he “had been feeling better,” an official said.
During a subsequent welfare check, agents at the facility noticed the child’s condition and transported him to the hospital. The child later lost consciousness during transit and was eventually declared dead just before midnight.
Word spread through the impoverished village in the western highlands of Guatemala: Migrants traveling with a child are likely to make it past the Border Patrol and into the United States.
Agustin Gomez Perez was 47 and in debt, and that path would only deepen his obligations. But like others in the rural farming village of Yalambojoch, he decided that traveling with a child was the only way out.
. . . . Father and son ended up in a holding cell in Alamogordo, N.M., on Christmas Eve. They expected that the U.S. government was about to release them to await a deportation hearing, just as the SMUGGLERS had promised.
