Officials reveal 10-year-old migrant girl died last September while in U.S. custody
The Department of Health and Human Services confirmed to CBS News on Wednesday that a 10-year-old girl from El Salvador died while in the federal agency's custody last September.
Officials from the Office of Refugee Resettlement and Department of Homeland Security said this was the first death of a migrant child in federal custody since 2010. In the wake of her death, five other migrant children have died either while in U.S. custody or shortly after being released.
HHS spokesman Mark Weber said the girl was in a "medically fragile" state when she arrived in March at the Office of Refugee Resettlement in San Antonio. The girl had congenital heart defects, Weber said, and after undergoing surgery, she experienced complications that left her in a comatose state. In May, the girl was transported to a nursing facility in Phoenix, and on Sept. 26, she was moved to Omaha to be closer to family. She died on Sept. 29 from a fever and respiratory distress, Weber said.
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Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) told CBS News he has "not seen any indication that the Trump administration disclosed the death of this young girl to the public or even to Congress. And if that's the case, they covered up her death for eight months, even though we were actively asking the question about whether any child had died or been seriously injured. We began asking that question last fall."
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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