Shortly before the funeral on Saturday for an eight-year-old girl who died while she detained by the US border patrol in Texas and stricken with influenza, her relatives vowed to pursue justice in her case so “nobody has to go through this” again.
“We will let our baby rest and hope that she rests in peace,” the family of Anadith Reyes Álvarez said in a statement, obtained by the Spanish-language news network Univision. “We want justice for her and that nobody has to go through this.”
The statement from Anadith’s family came hours before her loved ones expected to bury her on Saturday at a cemetery in New Jersey. Anadith’s family and other loved ones had grieved her at a wake in her honor held on Friday in New York City.
Anadith died on 17 May on what her mother, Mabel Álvarez Benedicks, has said was the family’s ninth day in border patrol custody at a detention facility in Harlingen, Texas.
The girl had reportedly been diagnosed with influenza, had recurring fever that would spike as highly as 104.9F (40.5C), and was complaining about having difficulty breathing. She also had bone pain and could not walk, according to what Álvarez has said to the Associated Press as well as information released by authorities.
Yet, Álvarez has said, personnel at the detention facility insisted that she did not need hospital care, and she only received saline fluids, fever medication and a shower. A nurse practitioner reported denying as many as four requests from Anadith’s mother to call an ambulance for the girl.
Anadith eventually lost consciousness, went limp and was pronounced dead after being brought to a hospital without any detectable vital signs.
Álvarez has acknowledged that Anadith had a history of heart problems and sickle cell anemia, yet her family has maintained that she was healthy when she arrived at the detention center. Meanwhile, Univision reported that a preliminary border patrol investigation found that medical staff who treated Anadith as her illness worsened failed to check health records documenting her conditions.
The US Customs and Border Protection agency on Thursday transferred out its chief medical officer in response to Anadith’s death. David Tarantino is expected to begin temporary work next week at the federal Department of Homeland Security, which houses Customs and Border Protection.
The non-profit organizations Texas Civil Rights Project and Haitian Bridge Alliance are advocating for Anadith’s family and assured that they have helped commission an independent autopsy to determine the girl’s cause of death.
“What happened to Anadith was a tragedy based on negligence,” the Texas Civil Rights Project attorney Kassandra González said in a statement provided to Univision.
The director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, Guerline Jozef, added that Anadith’s death “could have been prevented if her and her mother’s requests for medical attention would not have been ignored”.
Anadith was a national of of Panama, and her parents are from Honduras. Her death came a week after Ángel Eduardo Maradiaga Espinoza – a teenager from Honduras – died near Tampa, Florida, while detained at a US health department facility for unaccompanied children.
Officials have said they believe Ángel died as a result of an epileptic seizure. Staff at the facility where Ángel was detained had records of his history of epilepsy but did not read them, officials have said, according to reporting from the Tampa Bay Times.
Both Anadith and Ángel died amid a rush to the border before the expiration of Covid-19 asylum limits known as Title 42 brought extraordinary pressure on the outdated, underfunded US immigration system.
An arguably tougher immigration policy replaced what was in place before the lifting of Title 42.
