Inside the Cell Where a Sick 16-Year-Old Boy Died in Border Patrol Care

[Anonymous]

https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-the-cell-where-a-sick-16-year-old-boy-died-in-border-patrol-care

Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez, a 16-year-old Guatemalan migrant, was seriously ill when immigration agents put him in a small South Texas holding cell with another sick boy on the afternoon of May 19.

A few hours earlier, a nurse practitioner at the Border Patrol’s dangerously overcrowded processing center in McAllen had diagnosed him with the flu and measured his fever at 103 degrees. She said that he should be checked again in two hours and taken to the emergency room if his condition worsened.

None of that happened. Worried that Carlos might infect other migrants in the teeming McAllen facility, officials moved him to a cell for quarantine at a Border Patrol station in nearby Weslaco.

By the next morning, he was dead.

In a press release that day, Customs and Border Protection’s acting commissioner at the time, John Sanders, called Carlos’ death a “tragic loss.” The agency said that an agent had found Carlos “unresponsive” after checking in on him. Sanders said the Border Patrol was “committed to the health, safety and humane treatment of those in our custody.”

But the record shows that the Border Patrol fell far short of that standard with Carlos. ProPublica has obtained video that documents the 16-year-old’s last hours, and it shows that Border Patrol agents and health care workers at the Weslaco holding facility missed increasingly obvious signs that his condition was perilous.

The cellblock video shows Carlos writhing for at least 25 minutes on the floor and a concrete bench. It shows him staggering to the toilet and collapsing on the floor, where he remained in the same position for the next four and a half hours.

This is beyond sad. A 16 year old dies in American custody locked in concrete cell while suffering from flue. And our twitter feed is clogged with how Trump's son was "attacked" from a an example where his name was used. I am feeling truly sick!

[Anonymous]

America does not care. America doesn’t see him as human.

[Anonymous]

Pfffft, we can't even prevent witnesses with firsthand knowledge of sexual abuses of minors by the top strata of political influencers in the world from "killing themselves*" while in solitary confinement in a secure federal lock up. With that kind of track record, what the hell makes you think we can keep a sick Mexican kid alive?


*= "suicide" :roll

[Anonymous]

Breaks my heart. What sort of country have we become. Poor blessed CHILD. Why wasn’t he reassessed as per the NP’s orders? This is medical criminal negligence

[Anonymous]

This all goes back to the Trump administration's policy of creating a crisis at the border, which they intentionally did, even though they knew it would harm children.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/a-trump-administration-strategy-led-to-the-child-migrant-backup-crisis-at-the-border/2019/11/12/85d4f18c-c9ae-11e9-a1fe-ca46e8d573c0_story.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pfffft, we can't even prevent witnesses with firsthand knowledge of sexual abuses of minors by the top strata of political influencers in the world from "killing themselves*" while in solitary confinement in a secure federal lock up. With that kind of track record, what the hell makes you think we can keep a sick Mexican kid alive?


*= "suicide" :roll

Guatemalan

[Anonymous]

That video is utterly heartbreaking. If this doesn't make you want to weep you are not human.

[Anonymous]

Seriously, I don't want to hear a single GOPer who supports Trump's border policy lie about how they are "pro-life" if they are not out there condemning this.

If you can't condemn this, you are NOT pro-life. Not at all. You are complicit in his death for supporting the inhumane policy of the Trump administration toward migrant children.

Disgusting.

[Anonymous]

Big question is why he was moved to a different cell ( the one he died n) after he was diagnosed with flu and having 103 temp? Also, was he ever rechecked by a nurse?

[Anonymous]

This is unbelievable. How is this America right now?

I’m sick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Big question is why he was moved to a different cell ( the one he died n) after he was diagnosed with flu and having 103 temp? Also, was he ever rechecked by a nurse?

How hard is it to read the article? It says:

A few hours earlier, a nurse practitioner at the Border Patrol’s dangerously overcrowded processing center in McAllen had diagnosed him with the flu and measured his fever at 103 degrees. She said that he should be checked again in two hours and taken to the emergency room if his condition worsened.

None of that happened. Worried that Carlos might infect other migrants in the teeming McAllen facility, officials moved him to a cell for quarantine at a Border Patrol station in nearby Weslaco.

[Anonymous]

Love how you all politicize this stuff. You don’t care, you just want people to think you do. Shame on all of you. How many times have you helped the needy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Love how you all politicize this stuff. You don’t care, you just want people to think you do. Shame on all of you. How many times have you helped the needy?

No need to judge everyone by your own standards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Love how you all politicize this stuff. You don’t care, you just want people to think you do. Shame on all of you. How many times have you helped the needy?

So you're saying it's better to NOT criticize the Trump administration for their dangerous and cruel incompetence? I don't understand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Love how you all politicize this stuff. You don’t care, you just want people to think you do. Shame on all of you. How many times have you helped the needy?

Dishonesty or stupidity? What are you suffering from today?