A government official has conceded that the 8-year-old migrant girl who died under Border Control’s custody could have survived if she was treated differently.
In a CBS News report, an independent federal court monitor said Anadith Danay Reyes Alvarez’s death was “clearly preventable” and a result of “a series of failures” by government staff and contractors. He further stated that they failed to closely monitor her declining health, despite her sickle cell anemia and heart condition.
A “possible prosecution” could happen, according to the District Attorney in Cameron County, Texas, which has launched a criminal probe into potential child neglect, according to documents obtained by CBS News.
Alvarez’s death has raised questions from her family about the government’s lack of care. Her family also says negligence and discrimination played a role in her death.
Alvarez is from Panama and was 8 years old when she died in Border Patrol custody on May 17 after being in detention facilities for over a week. Her family believes staff “dismissed or downplayed” her complaints of pain and did not take her to the hospital multiple times. The family was also held for over a week, “despite agency rules that generally limit detention to 72 hours,” according to the report.
The child’s death is the first known incident of a child dying while in Border Patrol custody under the Biden administration. The incident has since launched a federal investigation.
Alvarez’s parents have since spoken up about their daughter’s death, stating that their pleas to help their sick child were ignored.
“A Border Patrol agent didn’t believe me,” Alvarez’s mother, Mabel Alvarez, told CBS News. “He stood in front of my daughter and told her, ‘Tell me how you can’t breathe because a girl that can’t breathe would be passing out and you’re not passing out, you’re fine,’ he told my daughter,” adding that she felt her pleas were treated like “a joke.”
She continued: “Had they called the ambulance sooner I know my daughter would still be with me. When they finally wanted to call the ambulance, the ambulance took about five minutes. That’s when I realized how close the hospital was to us and that they could’ve done something.”
An ongoing internal probe found that poor decision-making within the agency’s medical system led to her death.
“It is my clinical opinion that were she treated differently she would be alive today,” a CBP official told CBS News.
