Department of Homeland Security Sends Grave Warning After 7-Year-Old Guatemalan Girl Dies
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that a 7-year-old girl from Guatemala had died shortly after being taken into custody by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents on the night of Dec. 6.
7-year-old migrant girl taken into Border Patrol custody dies of dehydration, exhaustion https://t.co/Vb599XHO5I
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 14, 2018
The headline of the article and social media post caption read, “7-year-old migrant girl taken into Border Patrol custody dies of dehydration, exhaustion.” The wording of that headline implies that the girl had died because she had been taken into custody by Border Patrol, and the left and liberal media outlets wasted no time in placing the blame on President Donald Trump and his administration.
What they neglected to make clear in the headline was that the girl had come illegally come across the border in New Mexico with her father as part of a larger group of about 163 illegal immigrants who’d turned themselves in to Border Patrol agents. It was later revealed that the girl had not eaten any food or drank any water for several days, which led to a severe case of dehydration and shock.
Roughly eight hours after being taken into custody, the girl began to suffer seizures and was quickly airlifted to a children’s hospital in El Paso, Texas, on the morning of Dec. 7 where hospital staff tried to revive the child after she suffered cardiac arrest. The CBP said, “However, the child did not recover and died at the hospital less than 24 hours after being transported.”
“Our sincerest condolences go out to the family of the child,” CBP spokesman Andrew Meehan said in a statement to The Post. “Border Patrol agents took every possible step to save the child’s life under the most trying of circumstances. As fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, we empathize with the loss of any child.”
While The Washington Post and the rest of the establishment media are trying to use this tragic incident to attack and smear the president, The Daily Caller reported that the Department of Homeland Security appeared to place the blame for the girl’s horrific death on the girl’s father, who had led his daughter on the dangerous trek to illegally cross the border and had neglected for several days to provide her with the necessary food and water to maintain her health during that illicit journey.
A DHS statement said, “Unfortunately, despite our best efforts and the best efforts of the medical team treating the child, we were unable to stop this tragedy from occurring. Once again, we are begging parents to not put themselves or their children at risk attempting to enter illegally.”
“Please present yourselves at a port of entry and seek to enter legally and safely,” the statement added.
In a Friday morning appearance on “Fox & Friends,” DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen echoed the sentiment of the official statement while addressing the “heart-wrenching” news of the little girl’s death.
“It’s heart-wrenching, is what it is, and my heart goes out to the family and all of DHS,” Nielsen said. “This is just a very sad example of the dangers of this journey. This family chose to cross illegally.
“What happened here is that they were about 90 miles away from where we could process them, and they came in such a large crowd that it took our Border Patrol folks a couple of times to get them all,” she continued. “We gave immediate care, we’ll continue to look into the situation, but again, I cannot stress how dangerous this journey is when migrants choose to come here illegally.”
Nielsen also addressed the latest DHS statistics on border apprehensions, the latest news on the Central American migrant caravan currently holding in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, the fight in Congress over funding for a border wall, as well as her relationship with the president.
Both the statement from DHS and remarks from Secretary Nielsen make it clear that while they grieve over the untimely death of the little 7-year-old girl from Guatemala, they also view that death as unnecessary and brought about solely due to her family’s decision to make the dangerous illicit journey across the border in the rather inhospitable desert region of New Mexico.
The media can try to politicize this girl’s tragic death to use against Trump all they want, but the majority of the American people know that the girl would not have died such a horrible death if her family had not neglected to give her food and water for several days while attempting to illegally cross the U.S. border.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
