Law firm alleges neglectful medical care after child dies weeks after ICE custod
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https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/28/us/texas-ice-child-death/index.html
(CNN) A mother and her lawyers allege that ICE and those running an immigration facility in Texas provided substandard medical care for her toddler, who died six weeks after they were released. Yazmin Juarez and Mariee were detained by ICE in March.
Yazmin Juarez, 20, and her 19-month-old daughter, Mariee, were detained at a facility in Dilley, Texas, "with unsafe conditions, neglectful medical care, and inadequate supervision," according to her law firm in a statement. Shortly after they arrived at the South Texas Family Residential Center in March, Mariee contracted a respiratory infection that her lawyers at the firm of Arnold & Porter allege "went woefully under-treated for nearly a month."
Officials in Texas say they are investigating the case, and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials did not respond to specific allegations made by Juarez and her lawyers. On Tuesday, her lawyers filed a notice of claim against the city of Eloy, Arizona, which is the prime contractor for the federal government in operating the Dilley facility. The claim seeks $40 million for wrongful death. CNN did not receive an immediate response from the city of Eloy to a request for comment on the case.
Juarez and Mariee, who came from Guatemala, were detained by ICE on March 1 after crossing into the US via the Rio Grande. She sought asylum and the two ended up at the Texas facility, for almost three weeks, according to the law firm. At the facility, Mariee became increasingly ill, according to a timeline of events released by the lawyers. Juarez repeatedly sought health care for her daughter, but didn't get the intensive medical treatment she sought and was prescribed various medication that didn't improve her daughter's
condition, according to the timeline.
After they were released from the facility, Juarez and Mariee flew to New Jersey where her mother lives, and sought medical attention there the
next day. Mariee was hospitalized for respiratory failure for six weeks and died at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia on May 10, according
to Juarez's lawyers.
"A mother lost her little girl because ICE and those running the Dilley immigration prison failed them inexcusably," according to the law firm's
statement.
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