A Guatemalan woman whose infant daughter died after being held by U.S. immigration authorities denounced the &#8220;cruelty&#8221; of the country&#8217;s migrant detention centers Wednesday.
Yazmin Juarez spoke out at &#8220;Kids in Cages: Inhumane Treatment at the Border,&#8221; a congressional hearing staged amid a series of scandals over poor conditions suffered by detained migrants that has rocked Washington.
&#8220;If today I can make a change, if I can make a difference by telling you what is happening with the ICE detentions, the cruelty &#8230; it is extremely unfair,&#8221; a tearful Juarez told reporters before the hearing, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Juarez said she fled to the United States last year with her 19-month-old Mariee &#8220;because I feared for our lives in Guatemala.&#8221;
She crossed the border and claimed asylum but says she and Mariee were &#8220;locked in a freezing cold cage for a few days,&#8221; then moved to an ICE detention center, when her daughter became ill.
&#8220;I begged the doctors and medical staff to give her the care I knew she needed but they didn&#8217;t,&#8221; Juarez said.
&#8220;When ICE finally released us, I took Mariee &#8230; to a doctor and then to the emergency room. But it was too late. Mariee never left the hospital,&#8221; she said.
&#8216;Government-sponsored child abuse&#8217; 
Speaking before the House Civil Rights and Civil Liberties subcommittee, Juarez said that &#8220;I watched my baby girl die — slowly and painfully — a few months before her second birthday.&#8221;
&#8220;The world should know what is happening to so many babies and children inside these ICE detention facilities,&#8221; she said. &#8220;My bright beautiful girl is gone but I hope her story will spur America&#8217;s government to act.&#8221;
Representative Elijah Cummings, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, denounced what he termed &#8220;government-sponsored child abuse on a grand scale.&#8221;
&#8220;There must be greater accountability,&#8221; said Representative Joaquin Castro, the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Castro called for a &#8220;long-term Marshall Plan for Central America,&#8221; referring to massive U.S. investment that helped Europe rebuild following World War II.
Bachelet &#8216;deeply shocked&#8217;
On Monday, U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said she was &#8220;deeply shocked&#8221; by conditions under which migrants and refugees are held at U.S. detention centers.
The Department of Homeland Security&#8217;s watchdog released a report last week that warned of &#8220;dangerous overcrowding&#8221; in multiple centers holding thousands of migrants seeking to remain in the United States.
Most are fleeing violence and poverty in Central America.

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Migrant Whose Daughter Died Slams ‘Cruelty’ of US Detention

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White flowers and flickering candles sat atop a low table inside the simple wooden home in remote, rural Guatemala. Nearby was a small pair of rubber boots, sized to fit an 8-year-old, <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/child-dead-in-us-custody-mourned-in-guatemala-village/4722415.html">Voanews</a> reports.
Taped to the wall were three photos, alternately smiling and serious, bearing a simple epitaph for the boy whose memory the makeshift altar honored: Felipe Gomez Alonzo. Died Dec. 24 2018 in New Mexico, United States.
On Christmas Eve, Felipe became the second Guatemalan child this month to die while in U.S. custody near the Mexican border. The deaths prompted widespread criticism of President Donald Trump, who has foisted blame on Democrats even as his Homeland Security secretary vowed additional health screenings for detained migrant children.
In the boy&#8217;s village of Yalambojoch, in western Guatemala, the political fallout in the United States seemed a world away and there was only deep sadness over his death. Relatives said they had no idea that such a tragedy could occur. Nor had they heard about U.S. policies that led to thousands of migrant children being separated from their parents earlier this year.
We don&#8217;t have a television. We don&#8217;t have a radio, said Catarina Gomez, Felipe&#8217;s sister. We didn&#8217;t know what had happened before.
The hamlet, set on a plain and surrounded by spectacular, pine-covered mountains, is a place of crushing poverty and lack of opportunity, home to a single small school, dirt roads that become impassible during the rainy season and rudimentary homes without insulation, proper flooring, water or electricity.
The community is populated by families who fled to Mexico during the bloodiest years of Guatemala&#8217;s 1960-1996 civil war but returned after the signing of peace accords. There are no jobs, and people live off meager subsistence farming and local commerce. Residents say the Guatemalan government has turned a blind eye to their plight, a complaint that can be heard in other impoverished villages in the country.
Felipe&#8217;s sister, Catarina, said that in recent years everyone started heading for the United States, so much so that a local project to boost education financed with Swedish help was abandoned because there were practically no more young people to take the classes.
It was extreme poverty and lack of opportunity that drove Felipe&#8217;s father, Agustin Gomez, to decide that he and the boy would set off for the United States. Others from the community had been able to cross the U.S. border with children, and he figured they would have the same luck. Felipe was chosen because he was the oldest son. It didn&#8217;t occur to anyone that the journey could be dangerous.
I didn&#8217;t think of that, because several families had already left and they made it, the boy&#8217;s mother, Catarina Alonzo said, speaking in the indigenous Chuj language as her stepdaughter translated into Spanish.
Felipe was healthy when they left, according to the family. The last time he spoke with his mother was a day before they were taken into detention by border agents. Felipe told her he was well, that he had eaten chicken, that the next time they talked would be by phone from the United States.
Instead, the call that came Christmas Day was from her husband, who said Felipe had died the day before.
The two had been apprehended a week earlier, on Dec. 18, near the Paso del Norte bridge connecting El Paso, Texas, to Juarez, Mexico, according to border officials. Father and son were held at the bridge&#8217;s processing center and then the Border Patrol station in El Paso before being transferred on Dec. 23 to a facility in Alamogordo, New Mexico, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) away.
After an agent noticed Felipe coughing, father and son were taken to an Alamogordo hospital, where Felipe was found to have a 103-degree fever (39.4 degrees Celsius), officials have said.
Felipe was held for observation for 90 minutes, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, before being released with prescriptions for amoxicillin and ibuprofen.
But the boy fell sick hours later and was admitted to the hospital on Christmas Eve. He died just before midnight.
New Mexico authorities said late Thursday that an autopsy showed Felipe had the flu, but more tests need to be done before a cause of death can be determined.
The other Guatemalan child, 7-year-old Jakelin Caal, died Dec. 8 in El Paso. She showed signs of sepsis, a potentially fatal condition brought on by infection, according to officials.
On Saturday, Trump claimed that Felipe and Jakelin were very sick before they reached the border and sought to pin blame for their deaths on Democrats, though both young migrants passed initial health screenings by Border Patrol.
Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said last week that prior to this month, no child had died in the agency&#8217;s custody in more than a decade.
On Sunday he called for a multifaceted solution on immigration, including not only better border security and new immigration laws but more aid to the Central American countries the migrants are fleeing from.
Referring to the U.S. pledge earlier this month of $5.8 billion in development aid for Central America, McAleenan called it a tremendous step forward.
There are green shoots of progress both on security and the economic front in Central America. We need to foster that and help improve the opportunities to stay at home, he said on ABC&#8217;s This Week.
Outside the Gomez family home in Yalambojoch, women gathered wearing lavender skirts in the intricate patterns typical of indigenous garb in Guatemala. Colorful tapestries hung on a clothesline above the muddy yard.
Taped to the door were a pair of Felipe&#8217;s artworks. One was a rendering of a blue balloon with a green string; in the other, a white horse jumped over a fence against a yellow sun and tangerine sky.
Among the villagers grieving Felipe&#8217;s death was his 7-year-old best friend, Kevin. Two days before Felipe and his dad left, the two boys quarreled.
They were crying because they had fought, said Felipe&#8217;s sister, Catarina.
By the time Kevin came back to look for his friend, he had left for the United States. Kevin now knows that Felipe has died, the family said.
Trying to fight back tears, Catarina Alonzo said her son promised before leaving that when he was grown, he would work to send money home. Felipe also wanted to buy her a cellphone so she could see pictures of him from afar.
Now she hopes for only two things: That Felipe&#8217;s body is returned as soon as possible for burial, and that her husband can remain in the United States to work off debt and support their other kids.
The Guatemalan Consulate in Phoenix has said that Agustin Gomez was released on a humanitarian license allowing him to remain in the United States for now. Felipe&#8217;s body is expected to be sent back to Guatemala around mid-January.
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2nd Child Dead in US Custody Mourned in Guatemala Village

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Family and friends are mourning the loss of a second Guatemalan child who died while in the custody of U.S. border patrol agents, VOA news <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/us-announces-steps-to-prevent-more-immigrant-child-deaths/4716604.html">reports</a>.
Eight-year-old Felipe Gomez Alonzo passed away just after midnight Christmas Day, the same day a 7-year-old girl was laid to rest in her impoverished Guatemalan village.
The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol said while the boy and his father, Agustin Gomez, were in its custody Monday, agents noticed the child was showing signs of &#8220;potential illness.&#8221;
Doctors at a hospital in Alamogordo, New Mexico diagnosed Felipe with a cold and fever and released him with prescription medications.
The child became nauseous and started vomiting Monday night, prompting his return to the hospital where he died shortly after midnight.
The cause of the child&#8217;s death is unknown but Customs and Border Patrol promises an &#8220;independent and thorough review.&#8221; It has also notified Homeland Security and the Guatemalan government, which has requested an investigation.
Following the recent deaths, CBP announced a series of moves Tuesday night.
The agency is now conducting follow-up medical checks on all children in its custody with emphasis on children under the age of 10.
CBP is also collaborating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to provide more transportation to residential centers and to address capacity issues in the El Paso, Texas area.
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<h4 class="media-block__title also-read__text p-0">Guatemalan Girl&#8217;s Christmas Funeral Too Much for Grieving Mother</h4>
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Meanwhile, in the tiny Guatemalan village of San Antonio Secortez, a funeral was held for Jakelin Caal.
Jakelin died December 8 while also in the custody of CBP. Jakelin and her father, Nery Caal, crossed into the U.S. as part of one of the caravans of Central American migrants.
It is still unclear exactly how Jakelin became ill.
She was apparently well when agents arrested her and her father along with other migrants when they crossed the U.S. border into New Mexico on December 6.
She became sick on the bus ride to a border patrol station and arrived with a 41-degree Celsius fever.
Emergency medical teams flew her to a hospital in El Paso, Texas, where she died two days later. Her brain was swollen and her liver had failed.
U.S. agents say the child likely had little to eat and drink before arriving at the U.S. border.
Critics of U.S. immigration policy point to the child deaths as examples of the harsh treatment many migrants can expect when they cross the U.S. borders.
&#8220;The Trump administration is deliberately and unlawfully turning asylum-seekers away from points of entry and delaying the processing of individuals seeking protection to an unbearable crawl, forcing families to take desperate measures to seek safety,&#8221; the human rights group Amnesty International said Tuesday.
A CBP spokesman could not immediately answer how many children are in the agency&#8217;s custody. But the agency processes thousands of children, with or without their parents, every month.
President Donald Trump has said all immigrants are welcome to the U.S. but must come to the country legally.
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