A migrant girl died in U.S. custody, and Trump officials didn't publicly disclose it for 8 months
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A top Customs and Border Protection official claimed Thursday that he was “very confident in the data that CBP has reported with respect to deaths in CBP custody.” But if that’s the case, why did it take the Trump administration eight months to publA migrant girl died in U.S. custody, and Trump officials didn't publicly disclose it for 8 months
A top Customs and Border Protection official claimed Thursday that he was “very confident in the data that CBP has reported with respect to deaths in CBP custody.” But if that’s the case, why did it take the Trump administration eight months to publicly disclose that a 10-year-old Salvadoran girl had died while in U.S. custody? CBS News reported on Wednesday that the child, whose name has not yet been publicly released, died in September while in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. An official from the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the ORR, claimed “that the girl had a history of congenital heart defects,” and that, "following a surgical procedure, complications left the child in a comatose state.” She died in a children’s hospital on September 29. Officials, though, did not disclose her death under U.S. watch for months, reporting it only after two children, 16-year-old Carlos Gregorio Hernández and a 2-year-old boy whose name has not been released, died this month after being taken into U.S. custody. The ORR, unlike Immigration and Customs Enforcement, “has no legal requirement to make a public report about an in-custody death,” Pacific Standard magazine reports, “but ORR's internal policies do require that the agency notify ‘appropriate Federal, State, and local authorities’ and the child's parents or next of kin, as well as the consulate of the child's home country.” It’s unclear if the former happened, but the latter certainly did not, in a violation of the office’s own policy. “Manuel Castillo, Consulate General of El Salvador in Aurora, told CBS News his office had no knowledge of the girl's death. Castillo said the office was caught off guard by the news, and was hoping CBS News report would help him track down the family. Castillo said concerned local residents called him, saying, ‘We can't let this happen again.’” Read more