A two-month-old baby boy fell ill with respiratory distress while at an immigration detention center run by a for-profit company.
According to Texas Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro, the boy was at one point unresponsive while being held at the Dilley Family Detention Center along with his parents and sister. Castro says they tried to take him to the clinic after hours one morning, but there was no doctor present.
Instead, staff called an ambulance, taking the baby to the hospital Monday night. He was treated and released, and has since been deported to Mexico along with his family.
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Castro says the case highlights why immigration detention centers are no place for children.
"We've seen the violence of ICE on the street, but there's also a brutality of ICE behind closed walls in those prisons that everybody doesn't get to see — that only members of Congress and others have had a chance to see," Castro said. "And so I'm telling you, please, it's just as bad in there in a different way, please speak up."
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The Department of Homeland Security is placing blame on the baby's mother, saying she entered the country illegally and chose to have the baby detained with her. DHS also insists there is adequate medical care at all immigration detention centers.
A Scripps News investigation, however, has documented numerous complaints about lack of healthcare at the Dilley Family Detention Center and other facilities like it.
