The funeral of an 8-year-old migrant girl who died in Border Patrol custody is scheduled for Friday in New York City, where her family was headed last month before their trip across the southern US border. It will end in tragedy.
The death of Anadith Tanay Reyes Álvarez has put the United States government under new scrutiny for the attention it provides to thousands of migrants detained at the border daily.
Anadith’s mother said the girl had a history of heart problems and sickle cell anemia.
An internal investigation found that Border Patrol medical personnel were aware of the girl’s medical history but refused to review the file before she suffered a seizure and died on May 17, the ninth day her family was in custody. .
In a statement, the Álvarez family stated that they will continue to seek justice so that cases like theirs do not happen again.
Funeral services will be held Friday night in New York City and the family says the girl will be buried Saturday in a New Jersey cemetery.
WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT ANADITH REYES ÁLVAREZ
Anadith, who was born in Panama, died at a Border Patrol station in Harlingen, Texas. More than a week earlier, her family of five had turned themselves in to border agents after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico.
Anadith tested positive for influenza while in US Border Patrol custody. Her mother, Mabel Alvarez Benedicks, told The Associated Press that she warned officers and staff about Anadith’s medical history.
On Thursday night, CBP announced that it had reassigned its chief medical officer, Dr. David Tarantino, after Anadith’s death, saying in a statement that it was “bringing in additional leadership to direct operations across the agency.”
The family entered the United States at a time when daily illegal crossings exceeded 10,000, as pandemic-related restrictions on applying for asylum were about to expire on May 11.
While the family was in custody in Harlingen, the girl experienced stomach pains, nausea, shortness of breath and a fever that reached 104.9 degrees Fahrenheit one day before her death, according to the CBP report.
The nurse practitioner also reported denying three or four ambulance requests from the mother until the girl lost consciousness.
Lawyers from the Texas Civil Rights Project and the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a non-governmental organization that works with the family, requested an independent autopsy to determine the girl’s cause of death.
