As 7 year old Jackeline Caal was being transported to a Border Patrol station, she felt very ill. By the end of the trip, she had died and authorities claim it was because she had received almost no food and water for days. Initially, the girl looked healthy as even the father signed a form that stated the girl was in good health. The girl along with her family were arrested in a large group along the border. However, the father and daughter did not board the bus until 4:30 a.m. She began vomiting at 5. Authorities radioed ahead to have emergency medical technicians available when they arrived in a town miles away. By the time they arrived, at 6:30, she had stopped breathing. It seemed she died with swelling of her brain and liver failure. Many of the authorities have said it is unacceptable and that anyone in that condition would be immediately taken into medical care.
In my opinion, I believe that the girl shouldn’t have died in the Border Patrol’s custody and it is inhumane to let her go like that. Stricter procedures and assigning more agents when arresting larger groups would prevent such a tragedy from happening. A medical professional should also be available at hand in case of any underlying emergencies that are inevitable in such volatile conditions where migrants can spend weeks on the road. If at least one of these solutions were implemented beforehand, the agency and the government would have avoided such a tragic incident from occurring. It also calls into attention the tightening of the border under the Trump administration and its effects from the separation of families to this girl’s death.
Questions:
- Do you believe that the agency is responsible for the girl’s death?
- Was this death preventable? If so, what would have been the solution(s)?
13 comments:
I feel like the way in which this event passed should not correlate to whether or not the agency is responsible for the death of Jackeline. This is purely down to the absence of medical assistance. Unfortunately, liver failure is extremely difficult to detect on the field and due to how quickly it took for her to die, meant that it was due to acute liver failure. As it took a long time to get to the medical centre, there was almost no chance of saving Jackeline. I think that this tragedy should point to a different problem, the difficulty in immigrating legally.
In present immigration law, it is extremely time consuming and difficult to be admitted to the U.S. from our southern boarder. This unfortunate truth makes people go to great lengths to immigrate to the U.S. which can cause tragedies such as in Jackeline's case. We need to focus more on the people that are controlling legal immigration and we need to understand that people working for the Border Patrol are in very difficult situations as there are more than just people that want to immigrate to the U.S. There are dangers of drug cartels crossing the border and if officers are caught in a gun fight. Although it is not as dangerous as being a normal law enforcement officer, border patrol officers must still be extremely careful.
The problem here is not the Border Patrol, but immigration offices that force people choose to immigrant illegally.
I believe that the fact that there was no medical staff that could arrive in less than an hour is clearly a problem if someone dies on the way to the Border Patrol Station. To die at that age to such severe internal problems is devastating but I somewhat agree with Danny that the severity of the health problems would probably not be easy to treat and may have been ongoing for some time before. For that reason, I think that they should not be held fully accountable but the fact they could not take her to receive any medical care before she died is troubling. I agree that they should have some sort of medical staff on hand at closer proximity in case of an emergency like this. Immigration is an extremely controversial issue and this only helps to bring light to problems we have within our immigration system.
While tragic, it seemed that the incident was unintentional -- the father did sign papers indicating that that the girl was healthy. I'm wondering if she showed any obvious symptoms before she collapsed and if anyone noticed -- it may be understandable that her condition went under the radar since there's so many people to take into account at the border. However, the lack of medical assistance is an issue and perhaps we should allocate more resources to this area on the governmental level. I know there are outside organizations that also play a role in providing medical services as well such as the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. According to texastribune.org, this organization is raising money to "immediate shelter and beds, medical services, counseling and therapy to help them deal with the trauma of family separation." If the government fails to act accordingly in time, civilians can donate to outside organizations such as the one mentioned above.
https://www.texastribune.org/2018/06/18/heres-list-organizations-are-mobilizing-help-separated-immigrant-child/
This is obviously a tragic story. A 7-year-old dying at the border represents the loss of a life that was just beginning, and no family should have to go through it.
However, I agree with Emily that this appears to have been unintentional, and that this case is more of an outlier than the other ones that have entered the news since President Trump was inaugurated. I think some of the reasons people have been citing behind why she was emaciated in the first place are valid, though. The hostile attitude toward the “caravan” or migrants in general should not be overlooked, as amongst those people are others like Jackeline who will need medical assistance once they reach the border. These issues go beyond (and farther back than) the current administration, and I believe more attention should go toward helping those at the border instead of highlighting conflict (though I realize with the media landscape of today that may be impossible).
The death of this young girl was very unfortunate, and I believe boarder patrol was responsible for this in part. Due to the nature of their jobs, having medical assistance standing by should be a given, which could have possibly avoided this incident from happening in the first place. This highlights an issue that seems to be ever present when looking at boarder problems, and if the Trump administration doesn't want any more inter/national pushback, aiding in this issue in some way could make himself look better. It is not pertinent that he does this, and unlikely that he will, but it would not only aide himself, but the those that are being directly affected by it.
The child died due to septic shock and dehydration and had not eaten in days. In the 8 hours, she was in border patrol custody, it's not feasible for them to be the sole reason why she passed away. As Alex W has mentioned, a larger focused should be placed on the immigration process as a whole. As the ACLU has put it, there seems to be a "culture of cruelty" ingrained within the Border agencies here in the US. Immigrants have been and will continue to be vital to the US. There seems to be this hypocritical state in US immigration from our southern border where politicians claim that illegal immigration is bad while it is increasingly difficult to come into the country legally. Mixed with deteriorating situations in Central American countries and we have what we have now.
(https://www.aclutx.org/en/press-releases/aclu-border-rights-center-statement-childs-death-border-patrol-custody)
Even though this seems to be unintentional, Border Patrol should still take responsibility for her death. Knowing that a lot of refugees and migrants come from poor conditions and are likely not in good health, the government should be prepared to take care of those in custody and make sure that they don't die under their care, possibly by creating more jobs for medical staff. I also think that Border Patrol has a tendency to treat migrants and refugees less than kindly (and not just under Trump), so I think that may have played a role in the delay of healthcare for the girl. However, I believe that a lot of this incident was unlucky and that even if reform is introduced at the border, unfortunate incidents like this will still occur.
The border patrol should partially take responsibility for the girl's death, as they did have her in custody and therefore she can't really be held responsible for maintaining her own well-being. However, until we learn more, there could have been factors prior to the border patrol taking custody of her that could have contributed to her death, which is why the blame shouldn't all be put on border security. The girl's death tragic and deserves some investigation, but it is best for the United States to focus on getting resources down to the border for the migrants rather than dwell on what happened.
I definitely think that Border Control is partially responsible. We've been hearing this story from their perspective. Jackie's father said that for the 8 hours they were held in a facility with almost 200 other migrants they were given NO WATER.
I'm not surprised. This is the same administration that forcefully separates families. The trauma is inconceivable. I went to a protest recently where they read aloud a letter from a woman in one of these facilities. She said she could hear children (who are kept in a separate building apart from their parents) screaming all night for their moms. She had heard no update on if her child was okay, or where he even was, for days.
The way we handle immigration in this country -- particularly non-white immigrants -- is appalling and dehumanizing. These people are refugees; fleeing a country rampant with gang violence and crime. It's shameful that we turn them away, or worse, deprive them of basic necessities like water and medical care and tear them apart from their families when they are most vulnerable.
Jackie's death is a tragedy, but more importantly, a human rights violation. It should be treated as such.
I do believe that the Customs and Border Protection is somewhat responsible for the death of the child and I believe that this incident should lead to a change in standard operating procedures. Firstly, I believe that at the time of detention, there should be medical professionals to determine if there are any people that require immediate medical attention. Whether or not they appear fine should not be used to establish good health. If the girl was examined, even very quickly, she could have been saved. Although the exact nature of the girl's death is still unclear, if she did die of dehydration, I believe that it highlights the troubling humanitarian crisis in the United States. Either way, I believe that Congress should conduct an investigation into the practices and procedures of the CBP and that changes be made to the way it operates. Hopefully, more deaths can be avoided. Rather than killing people, we should be saving those who risked their lives to come to the US.
i think that the border patrol should be responsible for her death due to lack of water and food which is a reason why she had a bad health during that time, there should have been medical assistance right then which would prevent her death from happening and saved her.
In my opinion, I believe that the Border Patrol station is slightly responsible for her death. The authorities there should have made better efforts to ensure the health and well-being of the migrants along the border. Under the Trump administration, immigrants have endured a difficult time with border conflicts, immigration status and the separation of families as stated in your post. The fact that Border Patrol did not provide the necessary medical aid exacerbates the immigrant situation even more so, especially due to the other controversies surrounding immigration. It is quite upsetting that even when the current administration is damaging the relationships and lives of families, it cannot even provide basic medical and critical attention to the very people they are harming. However, I am unsure if Jackeline Caal spoke up about her ill condition at the beginning since her father signed a form claiming that she appeared healthy. Regardless, Border Patrol should have a medical staff at all times. After reading the article, I found out that there was a lack of medical staff nearby and she had to wait four hours to get medical attention. This lack of medical and reasonable care for these migrants reveals a troubling crisis for our nation where medical staff and authorities should be located nearby at all times, especially in an emotionally and physically draining process of immigration and moving along the border. If the Trump administration desires to tighten the border, then they should really resolve the humanitarian conflict by providing basic medical staff, necessities and a faster mode of transportation.
I agree, there could be better medical staff in closer proximity. But then again, their job at the border is not to treat sickness immediately after someone has cross the border illegally. If we did so, people could just cross the border whenever they were extremely ill to get free treatment. We would be throwing our tax paying money at doctors treating immigrants that are trying to get free benefits by crossing the border. Although, in this case it is still extremely sad. It is a persons life at danger and there should be some responsibility for such a tragedy. If she was throwing up 30 minutes after being picked up, though, it does seem as if she was sick before the event, on which case it could be harsh to blame it on the border control not having food or water. This could potentially not be the cause of her death in the long run.
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