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Teen Mother Detained With Premature Baby at Texas Border Patrol Facility

Immigrant advocates are questioning why the baby was not being treated in a hospital’s neonatal unit.

A premature baby and her 17-year-old mother have reportedly been detained in a Texas Border Patrol facility, sparking questions about why the baby was not being treated in a hospital’s neonatal unit. The Guatemalan mother had an emergency cesarean section in Mexico in late May before crossing into the U.S. on June 4, advocates told the Associated Press. The mother was reportedly wheelchair-bound and in pain when advocates found her at the facility earlier this week. The “minuscule” baby was sick and unresponsive at one point, and had no clean clothes after border officials forced the teenage mother to throw away her backpack with the baby’s belongings, according to immigrant advocate Hope Frye. “You look at this baby and there is no question that this baby should be in a tube with a heart monitor,” Frye said, adding that the baby’s head was “the size of my fist or smaller than my fist.” After a social media outcry over the mother and child’s housing situation, both will reportedly be transferred to a privately run facility for underage immigrants. Customs and Border Protection, already facing scrutiny after a number of children have died in U.S. custody after crossing the border, has not yet publicly commented on the case.