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After a final walk along a dirt road crossing the desert, a father and his daughter entered the United States at the end of a 2,000-mile journey through Mexico.
Part of a group of 163 people, apparently comprising dozens of unaccompanied children, who had gone to Antelope Wells, New Mexico, was considered to be the only one in the world. the most remote place on the entire southern border of America.
A little over 27 hours later, despite a desperate seven-year-old Jakelin Amei Rosemery Caal Maquin, died
. Even though the results of an autopsy may not be known for a few days, the circumstances of his death under the custody of the US patrol Donald Trump agencies blame a parent who would jeopardize the safety of their child in a perilous journey. Critics of the president's alarmist speech about an "invasion" on the Mexican border blame his policies for pushing people to take more and more desperate measures.
While the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is investigating, there are gaps in the file. and some essential details are disputed by the family of Jakelin
According to the DHS, her death followed several days during which she had traveled in the desert without food or water. A Washington Post article indicates that the Border Patrol Agency quoted statements from his father.
An unnamed official of the Customs and Border Protection Department (CBP) also told La Poste that his father had not sounded the alarm regarding the worsening of his fever during their detention. "The opportunities were many, if his father had noticed something and reported it to the agents," said the manager.
His father, Nery Gilberto Caal Cuz, 29, praised rescuers' efforts to save his son. his daughter then insisted in the statement of a lawyer telling him that he was taking care of her during his trip and that he was making sure that she was nurtured and had good health. ;water.
Family members in Raxruhá, his small village in Guatemala, said Jakelin, who celebrated his seventh birthday on his trip to northern Mexico, received his first pair of shoes for the trip.
His grandfather, Domingo Caal, said The family was doing $ 5 a day in harvesting corn and beans and Jakelin's father was hoping to send money from the United States.
The Associated Press described the family home, a "small wooden house with a straw roof and dirt floors. , some sheets and a home for the kitchen, where Jakelin slept with his parents and his three brothers and sisters. The brothers are barefoot, their feet covered with mud and the clothes are ragged. A heart made of wood and wrapped in plastic announces the death of Jakelin. "
His grandfather said that the trip took about a week and that his father had paid a human trafficker to get them across the border, making their crossing a desolate part of the New Brunswick Desert. Mexico known as Bootheel, where the border crosses the mountainous desert of Chihuahua.
Ruben Garcia, director of the Annunciation House Refuge in El Paso, Texas, where his father is now taken care of, said this father his girl was not part of one of the so-called "caravans" of people walking north over long distances
"He appeared as a member of a smaller group that s & # 39; 39, is then reunited with other people on the way, Garcia said. "He was traveling by bus and there were 40 people, that's what he told us." [19659002] Tekandi Paniagua, Consul of Guatemala in Del Rio, Texas, said that Jakelin's father told him The group with which they were traveling was said to have been deposited in Mexico. about 90 minutes walk from the border.
They crossed the border to Antelope Wells, which includes only four buildings, the port of entry of the border agency, two houses and a caravan. At 4,665 feet, it is higher than Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the United Kingdom, although under the sun, and even in December, it generally reaches daytime temperatures of 24 ° C (76 ° F).
The DHS scale gave a chronology of what happened after the group of 163 people crossed the border on Tuesday, Dec. 5, and were stopped by three border services officers at 9:15 pm. It is said that it is furthest away from the 43 points of entry along the border and that those who cross it here are usually "donors" who surrender to the border agents.
However, Trump's policy of placing sentinels at the border on international bridges to prevent people from entering US soil has led to an increase in the number of people traveling to more dangerous and remote places.
but instead of waiting for days or weeks at entry points, often in destitution or homeless, frustrated refugee claimants choose to cross the border between entry points.
The group in which Jakelin and his father were located was moved to a covered area and apparently interrogated and observed "to identify any health or safety problem in order to ensure that they receive medical care. required".
At the screening, the DHS said, "The father has denied that he or his daughter is sick. . This refusal was recorded on the I-779 form signed by the father. At that time, they were offered water and food, and they had access to a toilet. "
The father's lawyers said in a statement that the form was in English, a language his father does not speak or read, and he contacted the border services officers in Spanish, but he speaks mainly the Maya language. 'eqchi.' It is unacceptable for a government agency to have people placed on guard to sign documents in a language they do not understand clearly, "the statement said.
Agents decided to transport the large group by bus to the nearest border patrol station in Lordsburg at 90. The bus arrived and at midnight to 18 minutes, he took the first group of 50 unaccompanied children.
At 4 am, the bus returned for the second group. "Around 5 am, while the second group of inmates – including the child and the father – were preparing to leave .. the father informed the agents of the border patrol that his child had fallen ill and that he was vomiting, "said DHS.
for an emergency medical team to meet the bus upon his arrival in Lordsburg shortly before 6:30 am.
"At that time, the father warned the officers that the child did not breathe, "the statement said. The emergency medical team of the border patrol asked for an ambulance. "At this point, its temperature was 105.9 degrees. Agents providing medical care have revived the child twice. "
The ambulance arrived quickly, but it was decided to evacuate the girl by helicopter as the drive to El Paso, Texas, lasted four hours.
A helicopter arrived at 7:30. , left 18 minutes later with the girl on board and reached the Providence Children's Hospital in El Paso, Texas, at 8:51 am.
Jakelin moved from the emergency room to the pediatric intensive care unit. "At the hospital, her daughter was arrested several times and they were able to revive her," Garcia said, referring to her heartbeat.
But as the DHS statement states: "Unfortunately, she passed away on December 8, 2018 at 00:35. The initial indication from Providence Hospital is that she succumbed to a shock caused by sepsis. Her father was with her. "
" Jakelin's father is grateful to the many first responders who tried to save Jakelin's life in New Mexico and Texas, "reads a statement by his lawyers.
However, it is important of key points, they continued. "Before entering the CBP prisons and contrary to what has been reported, Jakelin had not crossed the desert for several days.
"Jakelin's father was busy with Jakelin and made sure that she was nurtured and had enough water.Her father and she asked for asylum at a border patrol as soon as it crossed the border, there was no shortage of water or food before arriving at the border. "
Family lawyers demand a transparent inquiry into the death of Jakelin.
When the White House was asked Friday to take action responsible for the death of the girl, spokesman Hogan Gidley said, "Does the administration assume responsibility for A parent who takes a child on a trip through Mexico to visit this country? No. "
Garcia, who runs the Annunciation Accommodation Center, said he believed that the Trump administration was deliberately setting up barriers to prevent people from exercising a right of abortion. seek asylum guaranteed by US law and international law.
He said, "What people are doing, is going further and further away and it is dangerous. It endangers the lives and well-being of families and of course children, which is very disconcerting. "
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