The body of the 7-year-old girl who died while in U.S. Customs and Border Patrol custody was returned to Guatemala on Sunday, according to CNN. Jakelin Caal Maquin, who fled Guatemala with her father and traveled approximately 2,000 miles to the U.S.-Mexico border, died only two days after the pair was detained on Dec. 6. Her remains will now be brought to Raxruha, the indigenous community in which she was born. Maquin’s family and Customs and Border Control offer differing accounts of the days leading up to her death. Family attorneys claim that neither Maquin nor her father were given food or water while they were detained for almost eight hours at the Antelope Wells Center, and that officials put her on a bus for another detention center despite her father’s immediate request that she be given medical attention. Border officials claim that the detained migrants had periodic access to food and water, that Maquin passed an initial health screening, and that they were not made aware of the girl’s illness until she was already on the bus. During the 90-minute bus ride, her condition deteriorated rapidly; two days later, she died from what authorities believe to be sepsis shock, although a full examination has not yet been performed.
CHEAT SHEET
TOP 10 RIGHT NOW
- 1
- 2
- 4
- 5
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10