Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Elect Castro Remarks Following Investigation of Jakelin Caal’s Death
—As Delivered—Click Here for Video—
LORDSBURG, NEW MEXICO—Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Chairman Elect of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, today made the following remarks after visiting the Antelope Wells Port of Entry and the Lordsburg Border Patrol Station where Jakelin Caal entered the U.S. and was held in Customs and Border Protection Custody prior to her tragic death on December 8th:
“…by having CBP agents positioned at ports of entry, and metering or disallowing certain folks to present themselves for asylum. This usually happens in urban areas like the Rio Grande Valley, Tijuana, El Paso. One of the most dangerous effects of that Trump policy is that these folks, desperate and fleeing dangerous countries, among the most dangerous living conditions in the world, have decided to go around many of the urban areas and into the more remote areas of Mexico and the United States—which has presented even greater danger for them and their families.
“We believe that may have been the case with Jakelin and her dad.
“We want to offer our condolences to Jakelin’s family, to her father, for their suffering and this tragedy. They made the same journey that so many people have made over the generations to our country. Folks from literally all over the world have risked their lives to come to the United States from places like Germany and Ireland and China and places in Africa. So everybody extends a very heartfelt and sincere condolence to the family.
“We learned today that there were some very disturbing systematic failures in how the young girl’s condition was handled. Raul Ruiz, who is a medical doctor and practiced as an emergency medical doctor, is going to give a fuller description of some of those systemic failures and what we can do better.
“The issue started when CBP violated the law and did not notify Congress within 24 hours that Jakelin had died in their custody. I had a conversation with the Commissioner—Commissioner McAleenan—about that, and he admitted that CBP violated federal law.
“In that initial conversation, I also discovered there were other disturbing facts. Like the fact that during the 94-mile bus ride, where she started to present serious symptoms of medical and bodily failure, there was nobody on board that could offer any kind of medical help to her. And no medically trained personnel. It’s systemic failures like that, that we’ve had a chance to uncover today, and also will have an opportunity to recommend policy changes to correct those.
“As you can imagine, the day has been quite an emotional one. Here at Lordsburg, we just saw many of the young children who were being kept with their parents who were in very desperate situations. Even here, we saw situations where there were failures of the systems.
“A young girl and her mother wanted water in one of the holding facilities. But there were no cups for folks to drink water. So there are a series of little things and very big things that add up to very serious problems.
“This is not just a matter of money. It’s not just a matter of giving Border Patrol more money. I believe, and I’ll speak for myself here because the other Members of Congress may have their own perspectives, but it’s a matter of how that money is allocated.
“As we discussed earlier today, CBP, the number of agents has at least doubled since the early 2000s. The budget has grown immensely. Billions and billions of dollars. And yet many of these systematic failures have not been cured.
“And so in the Q&A, we can get into some of the specific examples. But at this point, I’d like to give an opportunity to our Members to speak. The first one is, who will be the Assistant Democratic Leader when the Congress reconvenes in January on January 3rd, and that’s Congressman Ben Ray Lujan from New Mexico.”
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