Family of girl disputes the American government’s claim that she had not had food or water for days beforehand

The family of the young Guatemalan girl who died in the custody of US border officials after crossing the border is disputing the American government’s claim that she had not had food or water for days beforehand.

Anger is growing over the death of Jakelin Caal Maquin, seven, which emerged last week and immediately sparked uproar about harsh immigration and border policies being pursued by the Trump administration.

On Saturday, lawyers for the family released a statement insisting that the girl had been fed and hydrated and appeared to be in good health as she travelled through Mexico to the US southern border with her father, intending to seek asylum.

She had not been travelling through the desert for days, the family asserted, before being taken into custody by US officials along with many other migrants on 6 December. Jakelin died less than two days later, according to immigration officials.

Border patrol officials last Friday said agents did everything they could to save the girl – but that she had not had food or water for days when she began vomiting and eventually stopped breathing, later dying in a Texas hospital.

Tekandi Paniagua, the Guatemalan consul based in Del Rio, Texas, said on Saturday that he spoke with Jakelin’s father, Nery Caal. He said Caal told him the group they were travelling with was dropped off in Mexico about a 90-minute walk from the border, and Jakelin had not been deprived of food or water and appeared to be in good condition.

Border patrol officials did not immediately respond to the family’s comments.

The family’s statement was released on Saturday during a news conference in El Paso, Texas, at an immigrant shelter where Jakelin’s father is staying. Her family did not attend and has asked for privacy.

What is known is that in the evening of 6 December seven-year-old Jakelin Caal Maquin was picked up by American border officials after crossing a remote part of the US-Mexico border with her father and 161 other asylum seekers.

She would have been exhausted, perhaps already running a fever, when she got to a tiny outpost called Forward Operating Base Bounds. The Guatemalan pair had barely eaten or had anything to drink for several days, her father later told officials.

However, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials signed her off as in good health, and left Jakelin and her father Nery Caal waiting nearly eight hours for a bus to take them to a larger centre.

Before they boarded the bus in the early hours of the morning, her father told officials that his daughter was sick and vomiting; by the time they arrived an hour and a half later her breathing had stopped. A helicopter rushed her from New Mexico to a hospital in El Paso, Texas, but treatment came too late and she died 27 hours after entering the US.

“The initial indication from the Providence Hospital is that she passed due to sepsis shock,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that was posted more than a week later.

The death of such a young child in custody has caused national outrage, and led to calls for an investigation from Democrats. “A seven-year-old girl should not be dying of dehydration and shock in Customs and Border Protection custody,” said the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer. He demanded that the Department of Homeland Security and its leader, secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, be held accountable.

Migrants at Mexico border face an uncertain future on their own Read more

The incoming speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said: “All Americans grieve the tragic death of a young girl whose family sought a future of freedom and safety for her in our country.” Both of New Mexico’s senators and Democratic congressmen and women from the state and neighbouring Texas also demanded an investigation in an open letter.

There were also questions about why the CBP commissioner, Kevin McAleenan, did not mention Jakelin’s death when he testified to the Senate judiciary committee on Tuesday that the agency was struggling to deal with the large numbers of families and children crossing the border.

The CBP only confirmed that a child had died in response to a Washington Post inquiry on Thursday, nearly a week after Jakelin had died.

The White House, CBP and DHS say border agents tried to save her once they were alerted to a problem.

But the interview with Caal was in Spanish, while the family’s mother tongue was Q’eqchi’, a Mayan language, the Washington Post reported. The family come from the Alta Verapaz province, a poor area in the country’s north plagued by drug-related violence.

Once it was clear she was unwell, agents “did everything in their power to provide emergency medical assistance for Jakelin Caal Maquin immediately after her father told agents of her distress”, McAleenan said in a statement.

A White House spokesman, Hogan Gidley, emphasised the dangers of crossing the border illegally.

Cynthia Pompa, the advocacy manager for the American Civil Liberties Union border rights centre, said the number of migrant deaths had increased last year even as the number of border crossings fell. “This tragedy represents the worst possible outcome when people, including children, are held in inhumane conditions. Lack of accountability, and a culture of cruelty within CBP have exacerbated policies that lead to migrant deaths,” she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.