Rainbow balloons and the image of Minnie Mouse surrounded the coffin of Anadith Danay Reyes Álvarez at her funeral on Friday in New York City, where dozens of people gathered to remember the 8-year-old Panamanian girl who died while under custody of the United States Border Patrol.
His family was heading to this city last month before their journey across the country’s southern border ended in tragedy. The girl’s death has put the US government under increased scrutiny for the attention given to thousands of detained migrants.
The girl’s mother, Mabel Álvarez Benedicks, hugged almost everyone present, thanking them for coming to honor her daughter. She took a handful of tissues to wipe her eyes and nose.
Anadith had a history of heart problems and sickle cell anemia, her mother has said. An internal investigation found that Border Patrol medical personnel were informed of the girl’s history but declined to review the file before the girl suffered a seizure and died on May 17, the ninth day the family had been in detention.
Benedicks began to cry when the girl’s coffin was closed. Pastor Arnold Ciego led the people in a song and commented that the family did not leave their countries because they simply wanted to leave, but because they were looking for “a refuge, a place where they could in one way or another seek a cure for the illness of their daughter”.
“When are we going to rest from an unfair system?” the pastor said.
Pointing to posters with photos of her daughter, Rossel Reyes recalled how during her stay in Mexico, she never wanted to get off her bike. During her stay in Honduras, she was never separated from him while they walked on the beach. She was always kind and loving. He will think of her every day, he said.
Anadith died at a Border Patrol station in Harlingen, Texas. More than a week earlier, her family of five members had surrendered to border agents after crossing the Rio Grande (Rio Grande in the United States) from Mexico.
Anadith tested positive for influenza while in custody. Her mother told The Associated Press that she had told her agents and staff about Anadith’s medical history. A preliminary report from the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office of Professional Responsibility found that medical personnel refused to examine the file.
On Thursday night, CBP announced that it had reassigned its chief medical officer, Dr. David Tarantino, to another position following Anadith’s death, saying in a statement that it was “bringing additional leadership to senior positions to drive action in the entire agency.
The family entered the United States at a time when illegal border crossings were exceeding 10,000 a day, as a surge of migrants occurred before the expiration of COVID-19 pandemic-related asylum restrictions known as Title 42, which they came to an end on May 11.
While the family was detained in Harlingen, the girl experienced stomach pains, nausea, shortness of breath and a fever that reached 40.5 degrees Celsius (104.9 Fahrenheit) one day before her death, CBP said in its report.
The nurse practitioner also reported denying three or four requests from the girl’s mother for an ambulance to come, until the girl lost consciousness in the woman’s arms.
“Despite the girl’s health problems, her mother’s concerns, and the series of treatments required to address her state of health, the contracted medical personnel did not transfer her to a hospital for more specialized care,” he said. the Office of Professional Responsibility.
Dr. Paul H. Wise, a Stanford University professor of pediatrics who visited South Texas to examine the circumstances surrounding what he described as a “preventable” death, said there should be no hesitation in sending sick children to the hospital. especially those with chronic health problems.
Lawyers from the activist group Texas Civil Rights Project and the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a non-governmental organization that works with the family, have requested an independent autopsy to determine the girl’s cause of death.
The family says the girl will be buried Saturday in a New Jersey cemetery.
