Seven-year-old girl who died at border did not receive medical care for 90 minutes

The death of Jackeline Caal raises questions about the Border Patrol's procedures and the Trump administration's policy of delaying migrants at legal ports of entry.

Dec. 14, 2018 / 1:55 PM EST
By Julia Ainsley, Jacob Soboroff and Cal Perry

WASHINGTON — A 7-year-old Guatemalan girl who died in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection waited an hour and a half before receiving emergency medical care after showing symptoms, officials said Friday.

Jackeline Caal, whose name was confirmed by CBP Friday afternoon, was apprehended with her father after crossing the border illegally into New Mexico with her family and more than 160 other migrants. Medical personnel are not staffed in the remote area where they were held, known as Antelope Wells, the officials said.

Before the group left Antelope Wells by bus to be transferred to a border station, Caal's father reported that she was ill and vomiting. By the time she arrived at the border station an hour-and-a-half later, she was not breathing. She was revived twice by emergency workers and then transported by air to a hospital in El Paso, Texas, where she died of cardiac arrest with her father by her side.

Caal was severely dehydrated; however, officials say that migrants were given access to water at Antelope Wells.

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