Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Toddler Died After Contracting Infection At ICE Detention Center, Law Firm Claims
A law firm representing the family of a toddler reported to have died after being released from an immigration detention facility issued new information Monday about what it called a "needless and devastating loss." Washington-based Arnold & Porter's statement Monday identifies the child by her first name, Mariee, and says she was 21 months old when she died in May. A Vice News story also released Monday said Mariee arrived with her mother, Yazmin Juarez, at the detention center in Dilley, Texas, in March, and died about six weeks after her release. (8/27)
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. (Lynch, Alsup and Park, 8/28)
"A mother lost her little girl because ICE and those running the Dilley immigration prison failed them inexcusably," said R. Stanton Jones, a partner with Arnold & Porter, a Washington, D.C. law firm representing the family pro bono. 鈥淚nstead of offering safe harbor from the life-threatening violence they were fleeing, ICE detained Yazmin and her baby Mariee in a place with unsafe conditions, neglectful medical care, and inadequate supervision. ... The medical care Mariee received in ICE detention was woefully inadequate, neglectful, and substandard." (Platoff, 8/27)