This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A migrant teen and her premature baby languished in a Texas border patrol facility after crossing the US-Mexico border, the infant not receiving proper neonatal care, an immigration advocate has alleged.

The alleged maltreatment, recounted to the Associated Press by an activist who said she met the 17-year-old mother, comes amid intensified scrutiny of Trump administration policy on immigration.

Advocates contend that Trump’s hardline approach, which has resulted in family separations and migrants being held in cages, especially endangers young people and other vulnerable populations.

Since late 2018, five children have died after being detained by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). One report said at least seven children had died in US immigration custody.

Reports reveal ‘egregious’ conditions in US migrant detention facilities Read more

The perilous trek to the US, often from Central America or beyond and north through Mexico, has also resulted in some 7,500 deaths between 1998 and 2018, data indicate.

On Wednesday, border patrol agents found the body of a seven-year-old girl, thought to be a citizen of India, near an Arizona town.

“The girl had reportedly been traveling with four others dropped near the international boundary by human smugglers who ordered the group to cross in the dangerous and austere location,” CBP said in a statement.

A member of No More Deaths, a humanitarian group that operates in the area, was recently tried in relation to helping two migrants. The case ended in a mistrial earlier this week.

The premature baby is not said to have been separated from her mother, who is believed to be from Guatemala.

Hope Frye, a volunteer advocate for migrants, claimed the mother underwent an emergency cesarean section last month. She then crossed into the US with her baby on 4 June. The mother and baby needed to be carried across the Rio Grande that runs along much of the Texas-Mexico border.

The infant fell ill and at one point and was said to have been “listless and unresponsive”.

“You look at this baby and there is no question that this baby should be in a tube [incubator] with a heart monitor,” Frye said.

Following social media outcry, the mother and daughter were poised to be taken to a privately run center for migrant children.

The Guardian was not able independently to verify Frye’s account.

CBP referred comment to the federal Administration for Children and Families (ACC). In a statement, it said there are “policies in place to maintain the privacy, security and well-being of unaccompanied alien children (UAC) and we do not identify or discuss specific UAC cases”.

Speaking broadly about conditions in immigration detention facilities, the ACLU of Texas said the Trump administration “has shown a remarkable disregard for pregnant women and families with children”.

“No human being should be held in the overcrowded and deplorable conditions that plague CBP holding facilities. It is alarming that CBP would consider this environment an appropriate place to house any newborn infant, let alone those who may need medical care,” said Tommy Buser-Clancy, staff attorney for the ACLU of Texas, in a statement.

He added that pregnant women and families have been subjected “to unnecessary and cruel detention – where humane alternatives such as monitored release clearly exist and have been enacted by past administrations”.