Heath Haussamen / NMPolitics.net
A scene from the U.S./Mexico border. In the foreground, behind a barbed-wire fence, U.S. Border Patrol agents speak with each other in El Paso, Texas. Across the Rio Grande, in the background, is Cuidad Juárez, Mexico.
An eight-year-old boy from Guatemala died in southern New Mexico on Christmas day while in the custody of U.S. immigration officials, adding to the trauma of an already tumultuous holiday period during which thousands of migrants were being released without much warning in El Paso, Texas, sparking a region-wide call for help.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced the boy’s death in a news release that included few details. The agency did not release a cause of death or name the boy, but said he died at Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center in Alamogordo.
A federal agent noticed the boy showed signs of “potential illness” on Christmas Eve, the news release said. The boy, with his father, was taken to the hospital in Alamogordo. He was released Monday afternoon after being diagnosed with a common cold and given a pain reliever and an antibiotic.
But the boy was nauseous and vomiting later that night and was returned to the hospital, the release states. He died after midnight on Christmas day. His cause of death “was not known,” the release states, though it promised “an independent and thorough review.”
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus publicly identified the boy as Felipe Alonzo-Gomez after the Trump administration notified Congress of his death, as required. And the Washington Post filled in some details, reporting that the boy and his father entered the United States on Dec. 18. The child was apprehended in El Paso and was being held at the checkpoint between Las Cruces and Alamogordo on U.S. Highway 70, the Post reported, “because of overcrowding in El Paso holding cells.”
The cells at that roadside checkpoint “are small, designed to hold an adult for just a few hours during processing. They are not set up to hold families, and children there are not allowed outside,” the newspaper quoted an unnamed CBP official as saying.
Alonzo-Gomez is the second child this month to be detained in New Mexico before dying. Seven-year-old Jakelin Amei Rosmery Caal Maquin died in early December of dehydration and shock a day and a half after being taken into custody by federal agents in the bootheel of New Mexico.
The deaths have sparked an outcry about federal immigration policies and actions, particularly the escalation under current U.S. President Donald Trump. Following Alonzo-Gomez’s death, U.S. Rep.-elect Xochitl Torres Small, a Democrat who will represent southern New Mexico in the U.S. House beginning in January, called for a “thorough and transparent investigation into these children’s deaths.”
“We need medical resources, personnel, and safer facilities along our border now,” she tweeted. “Children dying in the custody of the United States of America is unacceptable. It has to stop now.”
U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., tweeted that he was “urgently demanding more details” on the latest death, and said the Trump administration “must be held accountable for this child’s death and all the lives they have put in danger with their intentional chaos and disregard for human life.”
And U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., tweeted that Alonzo-Gomez’s death was “devastating news on a day when so many around the world are holding their families close.”
“We need a full investigation into this horrible tragedy,” Udall said. “And we urgently need humanity in our immigration policies.”
Others were expressing anger. State Rep. Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, tweeted that state government does not have “authority over these federal facilities, but I’ll be dammed if we continue to allow this to happen.”
“Trump’s immigration policies are literally deadly,” he said. “On the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus, our backwards politicians have blood on their hands.”
The Post reported that the Border Patrol’s El Paso sector, which includes New Mexico and the El Paso region in Texas and had custody of both children who died, “on Tuesday ordered immediate medical assessments on all 700 children in its custody.”
Meanwhile in El Paso, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency literally dumped hundreds of migrants “with nowhere to go” at a bus station in El Paso over the Christmas holiday without notifying nearby shelters, the Texas Tribune reported. According to the El Paso Times, the number of migrants released in the city could be as high as 2,000 by the end of the week.
U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, spent much of the holiday dealing with the developing situation in El Paso. On Christmas Eve, he visited the bus stop where migrants were being released and was leading the calls for help.
In response, people throughout the region were mobilizing to provide food, clothing and shelter. N.M. state Rep. Bill McCamley, D-Las Cruces, spent Christmas morning in El Paso helping serve breakfast and lunch to the migrants.
“Here in America, we’re supposed to be better. We’re supposed to be the folks that show compassion and generosity — especially on a day like today, where we celebrate a family who was basically on the run and needed a place to stay,” McCamley said in a video posted on Facebook.
Two days earlier, on Sunday, O’Rourke spoke at a protest outside the temporary facility in Tornillo, Texas, where thousands of migrant children are being held. He said officials from the private company running the controversial facility indicated that it may be in the process of shutting down.
The CEO of that private company “says he will no longer accept additional kids,” O’Rourke tweeted. “That means by mid-January, Tornillo could shut down. We can’t let up. We can’t stop showing up. We will be back here again and again until the camp closes down for good.”
The ongoing, organized protest in Tornillo, which has attracted locals from El Paso and New Mexico in addition to people from around the United States, began Sunday and will continue until Jan. 1, The Guardian reported.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump, whose policies many blame for the situation on the border, spent the holiday in the White House tweeting about how he was “all alone (poor me)” during the partial government shutdown that was caused by a standoff over funding for his proposed border wall. Many of his tweets promoted the wall.
“The most important way to stop gangs, drugs, human trafficking and massive crime is at our Southern Border,” one tweet read on Dec. 23. “We need Border Security, and as EVERYONE knows, you can’t have Border Security without a Wall. The Drones & Technology are just bells and whistles. Safety for America!”
On Christmas day, after Alonzo-Gomez’s death, he tweeted, “I hope everyone, even the Fake News Media, is having a great Christmas! Our Country is doing very well. We are securing our Borders, making great new Trade Deals, and bringing our Troops Back Home. We are finally putting America First. MERRY CHRISTMAS! #MAGA”