Yazmin Juarez, 20, and her 18-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.
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.
“We are working with Yazmin and her family to obtain justice for the failures by ICE and others, and to ensure that no other family suffers such a needless and devastating loss.”