LORDSBURG, N.M. — Democratic members of Congress on Tuesday decried systemic problems at Border Patrol facilities in southwest New Mexico that they believe could have played a role in the death of a 7-year-old migrant girl.

Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, who toured the U.S. Border Patrol stations after the death of Jakelin Caal Maquin, a Guatemalan girl who died after being held by Border Patrol for 11 hours, said immigrants who are picked up in this desolate stretch of the U.S-Mexico border are held in cramped spaces and lack adequate bathroom facilities.

A Customs and Border Protection official who took part in the tour Tuesday acknowledged that as the number of migrants crossing near the Border Patrol's lightly staffed facilities in the area increased, additional resources need to be provided.

More than a dozen Democratic representatives and representatives-elect traveled to the remote stretch of border in search of answers in the wake of Jakelin's death, which has become the latest flashpoint in a growing controversy over the federal government's approach to immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border.

After the tour, several representatives called for an independent Congressional investigation into the girl's death, as well as Customs and Border Protection's treatment of immigrants.

Texas U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, chair-elect of the caucus, called the accommodations for migrants inadequate and said the CBP lacked the necessary expertise to provide proper care.

"There were some very disturbing systemic failures," he told a group of reporters.

The caucus members visited the Bounds Forward Operating Base, a Border Patrol substation meant to allow agents to deploy to the border more quickly. The base is in Antelope Wells, a tiny port of entry in New Mexico's Bootheel region.

On the night of Dec. 6, Jackelin and her father were detained there with 161 other immigrants who had crossed the border illegally. The girl and other immigrants were taken by bus to the Lordsburg Border Patrol Station, roughly a 90-minute drive from Antelope Wells.

One failure, Castro said, was the lack of a medical expert on the bus.

"There was nobody on board who could offer any sort of medical help to her," he said.

More resources

CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, who toured the sites with the Congress members, said his agency has assigned additional agents to the desolate desert region to provide better medical care and quicker transportation between sites.

He said the Antelope Wells station typically only has four Border Patrol agents on duty at any given time, because only about 30 vehicles cross the border there each day. The San Ysidro Port of Entry, south of San Diego, processes about 100,000 people each way each day.

McAleenan said smuggling networks have recognized that “seam” in the border and have started exploiting it in recent weeks.

Jakelin's group consisted of 163 migrants, and McAleenan said even larger groups have arrived there since they crossed Dec. 6 — 257 migrants crossed on Dec. 15 alone; another 239 migrants have crossed during the past 24 hours, he said Tuesday afternoon.

McAleenan said the CBP encountered only eight groups of more than 100 migrants crossing the border together during fiscal year 2018, which runs from October to September. Before the first three months of fiscal year 2019, the agency has already seen more than 20 such groups.

McAleenan said some of the migrants have told agents that smuggling networks are arranging for buses to take the groups all the way from Guatemala to New Mexico, allowing them to arrive at the U.S. border within four or five days.

Once there, they walk around a low, barbed-wire fence and present themselves to Border Patrol agents to request asylum.

“This is a brand new phenomenon that’s really challenging our resources,” McAleenan told reporters during a conference call Tuesday.

The commissioner said he is reviewing his agency’s staffing in the region, and will call on other Department of Homeland Security agencies to provide medical assistance and speed up asylum-seekers' processing.

McAleenan said he may request further assistance from the Department of Defense, which has already deployed nearly 6,000 active-duty troops and 2,000 National Guardsmen to provide logistical support and security along other parts of the border.

'Emotional' tour

Castro, when asked about the CBP official on tour, said he will call

Castro called for McAleenan to step down because of the deficiencies and for failing to notify Congress immediately about the girl's death.

The tour was "emotional," Castro said.

He blamed President Donald Trump's administration for severely limiting the number of asylum-seekers who can cross the border each day in major cities — a practice that Castro said forces immigrant families to cross at remote border regions such as Antelope Wells.

"We believe that may have been the case with Jakelin and her dad," he said.

Border Patrol officials have said that the group of migrants were screened for medical problems at Antelope Wells, and that Jakelin's father signed a form attesting that she was in good health.

However, while her father knows some Spanish, his primary language is a native Guatemalan dialect. Questions have arisen about whether he fully understood the form or what agents told him.

While in custody, Jakelin began vomiting and eventually stopped breathing. When Jakelin reached Lordsburg, an ambulance was called. She was airlifted the morning of Dec. 7 to a hospital in El Paso, where she died early the next day.

Border Patrol officials said Friday that agents did everything they could to save the girl but that she had not had food or water for days. Jakelin's father has disputed that claim.

Agents also said that the migrants were supplied with water, but members of the caucus said contamination problems have limited the water supply to the Antelope Wells base, requiring both agents and immigrants to rely on portable toilets.

Lordsburg, with a population of nearly 2,500 people, is the largest community in Hidalgo County. The city, located dozens of miles from the international border, is a fueling stop for travelers and truck drivers on Interstate 10.

Speaking out

U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and Rep.-elect Xochitl Torres Small, D-N.M., were among those on the tour. Torres Small, whose district includes Antelope Wells, didn't address media after the tour, but Lujan did. He took issue with the food provided to migrants at Antelope Wells, which consisted of granola bars, frozen burritos and small juice boxes. And he said holding facilities are overcrowded and lack adequate toilets.

Lujan said he asked a CBP official whether he thought an investigation was merited. And the response was, "if it's necessary."

"It's abundantly clear after today it is absolutely necessary," he said.

Darr Shannon, a commissioner for New Mexico's Hidalgo County, attended the delegation's news conference after learning about it last-minute, she said. She said she was upset because representatives were taking aim at the Border Patrol over the girl's death. But a remote location like Antelope Wells poses many inherent risks, she said. Even local residents struggle to get medical care, she said.

"Whose fault is it that Antelope Wells is in the middle of nowhere?" she said. "I just feel like they're trying to blame the Border Patrol for that girl's death. I work with these guys (agents). They do their very best."

USA Today reporter Alan Gomez contributed to this article.

Las Cruces Sun-News reporter Diana Alba Soular may be reached at 575-541-5444, dalba@lcsun-news.com or @AlbaSoular on Twitter.