A reporter asked if the administration would take any responsibility for the death.

“Does the administration take responsibility for a parent taking a child on a trek through Mexico to get to this country?” Mr. Gidley responded. “No.”



Internal investigators at the Department of Homeland Security are looking into whether Border Patrol agents followed proper procedures while Jakelin was in their custody, officials said. An autopsy is expected, but the results may take several weeks, they said. The Washington Post first reported her death on Thursday.

Officials at Customs and Border Protection, which is part of homeland security and which oversees the Border Patrol, told reporters on Friday that the group of migrants were initially held at a remote Border Patrol base. There, officials said, they were checked for health problems, given water and had access to bathrooms.

Officials said Jakelin’s father signed a form saying she did not have any health problems. The document was in English, but officials said Border Patrol agents spoke with the father in Spanish and explained the form to him.

But around 5 a.m. on Dec. 7, while the migrants where being bused to a Border Patrol station in Lordsburg, N.M. — about three hours from where the group was initially apprehended — the father reported that his daughter was sick and had started vomiting.