Reuters•March 9, 2020
Guatemala seeks to limit migrants returned under U.S. agreement
GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - A Guatemalan migrant who had passed a key hurdle in her bid to win asylum in the United States has died in U.S. custody after a gallbladder operation, the Guatemalan government said on Monday.
Maria Ochoa, 22, from the poor San Marcos region near Guatemala's border with Mexico, died on Sunday in a hospital in Houston, Texas, months after she was detained at the border by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in September.
Ochoa, whose two brothers live in the United States, had an operation on her gallbladder in the neighboring state of Oklahoma on Feb. 7 and spent a week in hospital afterwards, Guatemala's foreign ministry said in a statement.
Weeks earlier, she had passed the "credible fear test", the statement said, which is among the first tests U.S. asylum seekers must pass before they are allowed to press their case while remaining in the United States.
A surge of mostly Central American migrants have made the perilous journey north to try to enter the United States in recent years, many with children in tow and most fleeing rampant violence and extreme poverty in their home countries.
Several have died in U.S. custody in recent months.
A young Guatemalan woman is the eighth person to die in ICE custody in 6 months
INSIDER•March 9, 2020
US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
A Guatemalan woman, 22, died in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Sunday.
Her passing marks the eighth ICE-detainee death since October 1, when the 2020 fiscal year began six months ago.
A total of eight immigrants died while in ICE detention the previous year.
A 22-year-old Guatemalan woman died in a Texas hospital after several months in detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Buzzfeed News reported Sunday.
The woman, who was arrested and detained by ICE after crossing the Mexico-Texas border last September, had passed her "credible fear" screening, demonstrating that she was escaping a credible threat of persecution or violence in Guatemala, according to Buzzfeed News' source, who spoke anonymously.
The woman is the eighth person to die in ICE custody since October 1, which marked the beginning of the fiscal year 2020. In the previous fiscal year, a total of eight detainees died in ICE custody.
She was in detention at an ICE facility in Oklahoma when, in early February, she was taken to a hospital in the state and had her gallbladder surgically removed. The day after the operation, she was taken back to the Oklahoma facility and then moved to another ICE detention center in Texas.
Five days later, on February 18, she began experiencing abdominal pain. She was taken to a Texas hospital for care, where she stayed until her death on Sunday.
Since President Donald Trump took office, more than two dozen immigrants have died in ICE custody. A recent Buzzfeed News expose found that ICE's health branch "has systematically provided inadequate medical and mental health care and oversight to immigration detainees across the U.S.," according to a whistleblower who corresponded with Buzzfeed News.
The whistleblower provided Buzzfeed News with an internal ICE memo that showed a trend of inadequate medical care, which led to the preventable death of three detainees.
The memo also revealed that immigrants were given the wrong medications. One man was given Advil despite having thin blood. Detainees that suffered from addiction withdrawal were not given proper treatment, according to the whistleblower.
"This is significant and very damning," the whistleblower, a former official, told Buzzfeed News. "It blows up a lot of the ICE responses to allegations of poor medical care and about how it provides 'the highest care of detainees.' This makes that seem pretty false, which it is."
An ICE spokesperson told Buzzfeed News at the time that the agency "is committed to ensuring that those in our custody reside in secure, humane environments and under appropriate conditions of confinement."
The statement went on to say: "The agency takes very seriously the health, safety and welfare of those in our care, including those who come into ICE custody with prior medical conditions or who have never before received appropriate medical care. It also uses a multi-layered inspections program to ensure its facilities meet a certain threshold of care as outlined in our contracts with facilities, as well as the National Detention Standards and the Performance Based National Detention Standards."
In December, the House Oversight and Reform Committee launched an investigation into ICE's medical-care apparatus, citing numerous detainee complaints of "inadequate medical treatment."
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
A Guatemalan woman, 22, died in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Sunday.
Her passing marks the eighth ICE-detainee death since October 1, when the 2020 fiscal year began six months ago.
A total of eight immigrants died while in ICE detention the previous year.
A 22-year-old Guatemalan woman died in a Texas hospital after several months in detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Buzzfeed News reported Sunday.
The woman, who was arrested and detained by ICE after crossing the Mexico-Texas border last September, had passed her "credible fear" screening, demonstrating that she was escaping a credible threat of persecution or violence in Guatemala, according to Buzzfeed News' source, who spoke anonymously.
The woman is the eighth person to die in ICE custody since October 1, which marked the beginning of the fiscal year 2020. In the previous fiscal year, a total of eight detainees died in ICE custody.
She was in detention at an ICE facility in Oklahoma when, in early February, she was taken to a hospital in the state and had her gallbladder surgically removed. The day after the operation, she was taken back to the Oklahoma facility and then moved to another ICE detention center in Texas.
Five days later, on February 18, she began experiencing abdominal pain. She was taken to a Texas hospital for care, where she stayed until her death on Sunday.
Since President Donald Trump took office, more than two dozen immigrants have died in ICE custody. A recent Buzzfeed News expose found that ICE's health branch "has systematically provided inadequate medical and mental health care and oversight to immigration detainees across the U.S.," according to a whistleblower who corresponded with Buzzfeed News.
The whistleblower provided Buzzfeed News with an internal ICE memo that showed a trend of inadequate medical care, which led to the preventable death of three detainees.
The memo also revealed that immigrants were given the wrong medications. One man was given Advil despite having thin blood. Detainees that suffered from addiction withdrawal were not given proper treatment, according to the whistleblower.
"This is significant and very damning," the whistleblower, a former official, told Buzzfeed News. "It blows up a lot of the ICE responses to allegations of poor medical care and about how it provides 'the highest care of detainees.' This makes that seem pretty false, which it is."
An ICE spokesperson told Buzzfeed News at the time that the agency "is committed to ensuring that those in our custody reside in secure, humane environments and under appropriate conditions of confinement."
The statement went on to say: "The agency takes very seriously the health, safety and welfare of those in our care, including those who come into ICE custody with prior medical conditions or who have never before received appropriate medical care. It also uses a multi-layered inspections program to ensure its facilities meet a certain threshold of care as outlined in our contracts with facilities, as well as the National Detention Standards and the Performance Based National Detention Standards."
In December, the House Oversight and Reform Committee launched an investigation into ICE's medical-care apparatus, citing numerous detainee complaints of "inadequate medical treatment."
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