While U.S. officials chastised the father of Jakelin Caal Maquin for taking the girl on what can be a perilous trip through barren lands in Mexico, the pair mostly traveled by bus with about 40 other migrants, said Ruben Garcia, director of the nonprofit Annunciation House in El Paso, where the father was staying. Jakelin and her father, Nery Gilberto Caal Cuz, were in a group of about 165 other asylum seekers when they arrived Dec. 6 at a U.S. Border Patrol station in New Mexico, Garcia said.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Friday on Fox News that Jakelin’s death was “a very sad example of the dangers of this journey.” She claimed the girl’s family “chose to cross illegally.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection admonished asylum seekers Thursday in a statement on the death: “Please present yourselves at a port of entry and seek to enter legally and safely.”
The pair reached the border at a remote section of New Mexico and immediately sought asylum at a nearby U.S. Border Patrol station, Garcia told NBC News.
“Our law says that people have the right to approach our border and ask for protection,” he said
The Washington Post first reported on the girl’s death Thursday and published a U.S. Customs and Border Protection statement saying the girl “reportedly had not eaten or consumed water for several days.”
Attorneys for Jakelin’s family refuted the idea that Jakelin had been taken on a dangerous journey with little food and water.
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