The mother of an 8-year-old girl who died in U.S. Border Patrol custody this week said agents “killed [her] daughter” after ignoring repeated pleas for help.
Anadith Tanay Reyes Alvarez, her two siblings, ages 12 and 14, and her parents were being held at a Customs and Border Patrol facility in Harlingen, Texas. On Wednesday, Anadith experienced a medical emergency and was taken to a local hospital. She was pronounced dead later that day, authorities said.
Her mother, 35-year-old Mabel Alvarez Benedicks said Friday CBP agents repeatedly ignored the child’s pleas for help, which ultimately led to her death.
“They killed my daughter, because she was nearly a day and a half without being able to breathe,” Benedicks said. “She cried and begged for her life and they ignored her. They didn’t do anything for her.”
Anadith was born in Panama with congenital heart disease. Her parents are from Honduras.
The family entered the U.S. in Brownsville, Texas on May 9. Five days later, after a doctor diagnosed Anadith with influenza, the family was transferred to the Harlingen station.
Despite the diagnosis, Border Patrol agents said Anadith didn’t require hospitalization, Alvarez Benedicks said — even though they knew her daughter had a history of heart problems and sickle cell anemia.
On their first day at Harlingen, Anadith woke up with a fever and complaining of a headache. When Alvarez Benedicks told an agent about Anadith’s condition, she said he suggested giving her water.
“Oh, your daughter is growing up. That’s why her bones hurt,” the agent allegedly said.
As the girl’s condition quickly deteriorated — she’d stopped eating and walking, according to her mother — at least two requests for an ambulance were denied. By the time she was finally taken to a hospital, on Wednesday, Anadith was unconscious and had blood coming out of her mouth. She also showed no vital signs, her mother said.
The incident happened on the family’s ninth day in CPB custody, her mother said, even though CPB protocol states that people “should generally not be held for longer than 72 hours in CBP hold rooms or holding facilities.”
It’s unclear why the family was held for such a long time.
The incident is currently being investigated, authorities said Wednesday.