Ocasio-Cortez wears pin of Guatemalan child who died in US custody to State of the Union
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) attended President Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday wearing a pin displaying the 7-year-old migrant girl who died while in U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody.
Ocasio-Cortez was seen wearing a photograph of Jakelin Caal Maquin, a young Guatemalan girl who died shortly after she was detained along with other migrants who illegally crossed the southern border.
.@AOC is wearing a pin of Jakelin Caal, the Guatemalan child who died in custody of CBP. #sotu pic.twitter.com/VF9NGjtJe7
— Julissa Arce (@julissaarce) February 6, 2019
Ocasio-Cortez’s Democratic colleagues Reps. Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (Minn.) also wore the button.
We are bringing Jakelin Caal into the room with us during the #SOTU.
W/ @ayannapressley @ilhanmn @ocasio2018
They said 12,800 children are in detention camps via federally contracted sites. Now they said it was more 15,000. #ourdaughter #not1dollar pic.twitter.com/B7ihvWo8NO
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) February 5, 2019
@IlhanMN is wearing a button with the picture of Jakelin Caal Maquin, the seven year old girl who sadly died while in U.S Customs and Border Protection custody last year. #SOTU pic.twitter.com/I8xMOxm0Pr
— Maryam (@marnym773) February 6, 2019
Officials say Caal died of dehydration and shock after she was apprehended with her father and more than 160 other migrants on Dec. 5 near a Border Patrol outpost in a remote area of New Mexico called Antelope Wells.
{mosads}She was initially screened that night by Border Patrol agents. Her initial screening revealed no immediate medical concerns, and her father signed a form stating she had no ongoing sickness, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official said.
Officials said that the girl began having seizures eight hours after being detained, and was treated 90 minutes after showing symptoms.
Caal was flown by helicopter to a hospital in El Paso, Texas, where doctors determined she’d had no food or water for days. She died shortly after.
DHS insisted that it was not to blame for the child’s death, with Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen calling it “a very sad example of the dangers of this journey.”
Another child, 8-year-old Felipe Gomez Alonzo, died later in the month while in CBP custody.
The deaths have become a flashpoint in the ongoing fight over border security, which Trump made a centerpiece of his Tuesday speech.
The female lawmakers were also dressed in all-white, a nod to the suffragette movement, as a sign of solidarity with women across the country.
