'We've seen this coming': Why migrant children are dying in Border Patrol custody

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Two young Guatemalan children died in Border Patrol custody in December, prompting an uproar over the conditions of the facilities in which migrants are held.
Experts and advocates have decried the Border Patrol stations known as "hieleras," which migrants have alleged are freezing cold, with inedible food, undrinkable water, and open toilets.
But the Trump administration has said the uptick in the number of families with young children that have been crossing the border recently are the main driver, acknowledging that the government facilities weren't built to shelter sick children.
The deaths of two migrant children in Border Patrol custody this month have triggered an uproar over the US government's practice of detaining young children after they cross the border and the alleged lack of medical care they receive in custody.

But advocates say the problem began long before President Donald Trump — and that the recent deaths in Border Patrol custody have been years in the making.

Jakelin Caal Maquin, 7, died on December 8, roughly 24 hours after Border Patrol detained her. Felipe Gomez Alonzo, 8, died late on December 24, after spending nearly a full week in various Border Patrol facilities.

US investigators are still determining the exact causes of the children's deaths, but New Mexico's medical examiner said in a statement that Alonzo tested positive for the flu.

Experts say the facilities are unsuitable for children
Both children were eventually brought to hospitals for care, but the temporary facilities that the children were initially detained in have come under particular scrutiny for what experts have described as poor conditions that are unsuitable for children.

"They're designed to be problematic and not safe," Anne Chandler, the executive director of Tahirih Justice Center's Houston office who's been doing this work for 20 years, told INSIDER.

She added: "They are designed and meant for punishment and deterrence, and this is nothing unique about this administration. These [Customs and Border Protection] facilities have been nasty and ugly since I started this work."

Dozens of migrant children and their parents even submitted sworn declarations that alleged they had experiences involving inedible food, undrinkable water, overcrowding, and few opportunities to shower or clean themselves.

Those declarations were filed over the summer as part of a long-running lawsuit over the US government's treatment of detained migrant children. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) defended itself by pointing to a government report filed in June that declared the agency "continues to comply" with court-ordered rules governing how to treat migrant children.

But Colleen Kraft, president of the American Association of Pediatrics, told INSIDER she wasn't surprised when she learned of the deaths of Caal and Alonzo after they were detained.

"We've seen this coming," she said. "When you take a child and you put them into a facility that's cold, and they don't get proper sleep because the lights are on, and they have risk of infection from open toilets, it's a really bad combination of things that could really result in some very sick children."

One unique problem facing the Trump administration is the number of families with young children crossing the border and being placed in detention.

Border Patrol arrests for illegal entries remain at historically low levels, but the type of migrants coming to the US has evolved over time and begun posing its own set of challenges.

In previous decades, most of the immigrants crossing the US-Mexico border were Mexican men entering alone, seeking work. But now, more and more Central American families and unaccompanied children are crossing together in large groups, often directed by smugglers.

The Trump administration has pinned much of the blame on the migrants themselves, urging parents to avoid taking their children on long, dangerous journeys to the US, where they will then spend at least several days in detention.

"The unprecedented number of families and unaccompanied children at the border must not be ignored," Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement on Wednesday. "I once again ask — beg — parents to not place their children at risk by taking a dangerous journey north. Vulnerable po[CENSORED]tions — including family units and unaccompanied alien children — should seek asylum at the first possible opportunity, including Mexico."