Migrant Child Detained In Texas Dies

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

An infant who was held in a Texas Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service detention center died within days of being released to his family.

This is reported by the American Association of Immigration Lawyers (AILA), which indicates that the child died after leaving the South Texas Family Residential Center (STFRC), in Dilley, Texas.

"We have no information on the cause of death or information that confirms the connection between the child's medical treatment at STFRC and his death," said Gregory Z. Chen, a spokesman for the association. However, Chen assured that the news coincides with reports from various medical humanitarian organizations, non-governmental organizations and journalists who have documented the mistreatment that children have received and recorded the testimony of parents who assure that their children have been forcibly medicated, among other abuses.

"Seeing the lack of standard treatment provided to mothers and children in Dilley, we have filed demands with the government to address the complaints," says the spokesperson.

However, ICE sources denied that any incident had occurred in relation to the death of a child in his custody. "We are investigating the report of death after custody, but without a more specific name or information it is impossible for us to find out this report," Danielle Bennett, an ICE spokeswoman, said in a statement.

STFRC, where the boy was allegedly interned, is the largest of all ICE detention centers and has the capacity to house some 2,400 people.

It was in May that after announcing the "zero tolerance" policy, the administration of President Donald Trump began to separate children who crossed the border without papers with their parents.

Since then, cases have been documented of at least 3,000 minors - some babies with arms - who were separated from their parents, without knowing their whereabouts.

The crisis sparked a scandal and on June 20 Trump announced that families would no longer be separated. In July a judge issued an ultimatum to ICE and the government to reunify the families, which was not complied with because more than 400 parents have been deported.