AUSTIN, Texas_Yazmin Juarez, 20, left Guatemala last spring with her 19-month-old daughter, Mariee, because she feared for their safety. Now, Juarez is planning to sue the U.S. government, among other entities, after Mariee fell ill in a South Texas detention facility and died weeks later.
The law firm representing Juarez said in a statement that medical staff at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley neglected Mariee.
"Those responsible for providing safe, sanitary conditions and proper medical care failed this little girl, and it caused her to die a painful death. Mariee Juarez entered Dilley a healthy baby girl and 20 days later was discharged a gravely ill child with a life-threatening respiratory infection," Stanton Jones, partner at the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Arnold & Porter, said in the statement.
In response to the allegations, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said in a statement that the agency "takes very seriously the health, safety and welfare of those in our care. ICE is committed to ensuring the welfare of all those in the agency's custody, including providing access to necessary and appropriate medical care," according to The San Antonio Express-News.
Juarez and her daughter were released to live with family in New Jersey, but hours later, Mariee was hospitalized and died slightly more than six weeks later, according to CBS News.
"Within a week of entering Dilley, Mariee was running a 104-degree fever, suffering from a cough, congestion, diarrhea, and vomiting," attorneys said in the statement. "The medical staff who discharged her weeks later noted none of these conditions and cleared her for travel without even seeing Mariee, conducting any kind of examination or taking her vitals."
Juarez is seeking $40 million in her wrongful death claims against the city of Eloy, Ariz., "which serves as the federal government's prime contractor operating the Dilley facility, where Mariee Juarez and her mother were held for 20 days in March," according to Arnold & Porter. "The litigation is also expected to involve multiple other defendants and multiple jurisdictions."
Wednesday afternoon, an agency spokeswoman told The Austin American-Statesman that ICE "is unable to comment in light of pending litigation."
