Today’s Action: Investigate the death of the 7-year-old migrant child

A 7-year-old girl named Jakelin Caal Maquin died in the custody of Customs and Border Protections (CBP). The child had traveled with her father from an impoverished rural area of Guatemala – but lost her life under US control due to dehydration and sepsis shock. Two days before her death, Jakelin passed through the CBP’s health inspection, was determined healthy, and placed on a bus far from the reach of immediate medical assistance.

Jakelin’s life is gone – but we can honor her and those who may come after her by demanding an investigation into her death.

Call or email your Members of Congress and request an investigation of the health, safety, and humanitarian steps taken by Customs and Border Protections (CBP) with respect to asylum seekers under Trump’s Zero Tolerance policy, beginning with the death of Jakelin Caal Maquin.

Even before Jakelin’s failed health examination, Jakelin and her father were set up for tragedy by Trump’s cruel policies. The CBP has requested asylum seekers present themselves for legal processing — even as they make every effort to deter this by closing ports of entry, using chemical weapons against those at open ports, and placing youth in child prisons upon processing.

With no humane legal option for entering, and facing humanitarian crisis at home, Jakelin’s father and many others opt to enter the country illegally, placing them under heightened danger of extreme elements and lack of food and water.

We can only conjecture that a reasonable, thoughtful, safe, and humane asylum system would have kept Jakelin alive. The horrific victim-blaming and victim-damaging policies of the Trump Administration requires immediate oversight.

Email or call (202.224.3121) your Members of Congress (and tweet at your incoming members!) to call for an investigation into the death of Jakelin Caal Maquin and the CBP’s inadequate treatment of asylum seekers.

We as a nation must be better than this.