Alba Macario of Guatemala said her 2-year-old daughter, Suriana, nearly died in a processing facility in Calexico, California. “Immigration officials treat people as if they are animals,” Macario, 25, said in Mexicali, sent back to Mexico weeks after her release by US authorities. “I saw how my daughter almost died in my arms.” While they were detained, there were so many women and children in the cell, she spent two nights trying in vain to sleep while standing and holding her daughter. Many children developed fevers and coughs, including her daughter,
Migrant families, activists and attorneys said this week that the abuse of child migrants is widespread in immigration detention. The outcry comes after attorneys reported children and infants were found sick and left in soiled clothing at a Border Patrol station southeast of El Paso in Clint, Texas.
At www.usatoday.com
