“As CBP works to implement required improvements to our medical care policies and processes, including from the ongoing investigation into the tragic in-custody death of a child in Harlingen, we are bringing in additional senior leadership to drive action across the agency,” CBP said in a statement to The Washington Post.
The child, Anadith Tanay Reyes Álvarez, died May 17 after spending four days in a Border Patrol medical isolation unit where she was not seen by a doctor despite worsening flu symptoms and a history of sickle cell anemia and heart problems.
Homeland Security investigators have been looking into claims the contract medical staff at facility failed to review Reyes’ medical files, and she was not provided more advanced care even after her fever reached 104.9 degrees Fahrenheit. The inquiry into Reyes’ death has been complicated by the fact that the closed-circuit camera system inside the station was not working while she was there.
Border officials say they have raised their standards of care in recent years amid record numbers of crossings by families and children whose needs are ill-suited to holding cells that were designed for adults. CBP established its chief medical officer role in 2020 following the deaths of several children taken into border custody during a record surge of migrant families in 2018 and 2019.
The agency says it has built 11 facilities with dedicated space for medical triage and basic care, as well as isolation areas for communicable diseases. More than 1,000 medical personnel have been contracted to provide care at border stations and other CBP facilities, according to the agency.
Tarantino, who led CBP medical operations during the coronavirus pandemic, did not respond immediately to a request for comment. He will be given a temporary assignment with DHS starting next week, officials said.
CBP policy directs agents to process migrants within 72 hours for transfer to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or another agency, assigning priority to families and children. Reyes was in custody eight days before she died, according to a CBP timeline of the incident.
Born in Panama to parents from Honduras, the girl crossed into the United States with her family on May 9. During an initial CBP medical screening, Reyes’ mother provided the agency with documents and information about the child’s delicate medical history.
On May 14, Reyes was diagnosed with the flu after complaining of abdominal pain, coughing and congestion. “During this medical encounter, CBP contracted medical personnel documented a past medical history including cardiomyopathy,” according to the agency.
The family was transferred to the medical isolation unit at the Harlingen Border Patrol station that day. As the girl’s flu symptoms worsened over several days, she was treated by nurses at the facility with over-the-counter pain relievers and antiviral medications.
Reyes’ mother, Mabel Alvarez Benedicks, brought her to medical staff for treatment three times on May 17, CBP records show. The child became unresponsive after having a seizure, and she was transported to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead less than an hour later. An autopsy by a county pathologist found Reyes’ lungs had filled with fluid.
Reyes “cried and begged for her life” as she grew sicker, but staff “didn’t do anything for her,” her mother told the Associated Press in an interview. A funeral for the girl will be held Saturday in New York City, according to legal aid groups assisting the family.
The medical contractor, Loyal Source Government Services LLC., received a $408 million contract from CBP in 2020, public records show. The Florida-based company did not respond to an inquiry regarding the status of the employees who treated Reyes.
Rep. Nanette Barragán, (D-Calif.), the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said in a statement this month she was “at a complete loss of words after learning that medical staff both declined to review the medical file and ignored multiple requests from Anadith’s mother to call for an ambulance or for her to be taken to the hospital.”
“Anadith and her mother had multiple encounters with medical staff for fever, flu-like symptoms, and pain,” Barragán said. “Yet, she was not given the higher-level care that someone with severe health complications needs.”
After Reyes’ death, CBP officials announced a review of all “medically fragile” migrants in custody, and the agency said it has cut in half the amount of time family groups are being held.
The agency has deployed a team of doctors from the U.S. Public Health Service to provide “additional medical guidance and oversight capability,” according to CBP.
Officials said they have directed the medical contractor to “review their practices and address deficiencies immediately,” and the providers who were involved in the incident have been banned from CBP facilities.
