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December 6, 2019

Shocking Video Shows How Border Patrol Let Teenage Asylum Seeker Die in Custody
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A shocking video obtained by Pro Publica shows the last hours of the
life of 16-year-old indigenous Guatemalan asylum seeker Carlos Gregorio
Hernández Vásquez. He was found dead by his cellmate in a Texas Border
Patrol holding cell in May. The footage is disturbing. Hernández Vázquez
had been diagnosed with the flu and a fever of 103 when he was put in
the holding cell with another sick boy. A nurse recommended he be sent
to the emergency room if his conditions worsened. Instead, Border Patrol
left him in a cold, cement, quarantined cell, where he was found dead
the following morning in a pool of blood next to a toilet. An agent
checked on Hernández Vázquez three times while the boy was dying. But
Pro Publica reports the Customs and Border Protection agent failed to
perform adequate checks on the boy and never reported anything alarming
with the boy's health status. The video also shows that CBP lied about
how the boy's body was found.


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