U.S. Senate investigation of migrant child’s death finds poor medical care at border protection facilities

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Poor medical care that preceded the 2023 death of an 8-year-old girl at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility in Harlingen “was not aberrant but consistent” with other incidents of inadequate medical care received by vulnerable migrants in federal custody, a U.S. Senate panel concluded in a report released Friday.

The Senate Judiciary Committee recommended that CBP reduce the time individuals spend in custody, sharpen its medical care oversight and ensure it is meeting its staffing needs to address problems identified in the panel’s investigation.

The report found that many children are held in custody for longer than the recommended 72 hours, CBP facilities are frequently understaffed, processes for getting emergency care are not consistent among facilities and that CBP had failed to adequately oversee its medical contractor.

The probe was prompted by the death of Anadith Danay Reyes Álvarez, a Panamanian girl with sickle cell anemia and heart disease who crossed the border with her family near Brownsville in May 2023.

Her mother, Mabel Alvarez Benedicks, said she was denied a request to take the girl to the hospital despite an influenza diagnosis. Instead, to reduce her temperature, agents gave the girl saline fluids, fever medication and a shower.

They only called an ambulance after Anadith fell unconscious, with blood spilling out of her mouth. She did not have vital signs by the time the ambulance left for the hospital, her mother previously said.

“Anadith Danay Reyes Álvarez likely would still be alive if she received adequate emergency medical care in CBP custody,” said U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, who ordered the investigation when he chaired the committee at the time of her death. “For too long, CBP has failed to meet basic medical needs and wasted taxpayer dollars.”

Durbin urged CBP to implement the report’s recommendations as the Trump administration “begins its aggressive and undisciplined anti-immigrant agenda.”

The report also recommended that CBP improve the agency’s medical recordkeeping, ensure staff can seek higher-level medical care and stop the use of isolation units.

A previous internal investigation done by CBP found that contracted medical personnel working at the Harlingen facility had failed to call doctors as the girl’s health worsened and her mother pleaded to take her to a hospital. Staff had also not logged encounters with the girl and said they did not know of her medical history, despite CBP reports showing that her family had told them about her chronic conditions.