Inside the Cell Where a Sick 16-Year-Old Boy Died in Border Patrol Care

A 16-yr-old boy died in Border Patrol custody. He had the flu

They didn’t take him to the hospital
They didn’t release him
They didn’t even seem to check on him as he was dying on the floor of his cell, contrary to the govt’s account

We have the videohttps://t.co/DE0BDzyviI

— Eric Umansky (@ericuman) December 5, 2019

Common Dreams reports that

” Footage from an immigrant detention center in Texas obtained by Pro Publica and published online Thursday shows the final hours of 16-year-old Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez—who died from complications of the flu while in custody—but also strongly indicates the border patrol agents responsible for his care lied about what happened that night.

“As immigration authorities sat by, a child lay dying from the flu on a slab of concrete in a pool of his own vomit next to a toilet.”
—Jess Morales Rocketto, Families Belong Together

Carlos, according to the news outlet,

was seriously ill when immigration agents put him in a small South Texas holding cell with another sick boy on the afternoon of May 19.

A few hours earlier, a nurse practitioner at the Border Patrol’s dangerously overcrowded processing center in McAllen had diagnosed him with the flu and measured his fever at 103 degrees. She said that he should be checked again in two hours and taken to the emergency room if his condition worsened.”

The full ProPublica story is here.

The video was obtained by ProPublica.  It shows the Border Patrol holding a sick teen in a concrete cell without proper medical attention and did not discover his body until his cellmate alerted guards. The video does not match the U.S. government’s account.

KJ