House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blamed the deaths of two migrant children on a lack of proper medical care during her town hall at Trinity University on Friday night.
WATCH:
“As this is a town hall, I want to get a student’s question in. So I’m going to our first student who is Michelle Vasquez and Michelle is a freshman political science major here,” MSNBC host Joy Reid stated. (RELATED: When Asked If She Supported The Black Lives Matter Movement, Nancy Pelosi Says, ‘All Lives Matter’)
Vasquez responded, “Ms. Pelosi I would like to first congratulate you on your successful reelection as Speaker of the House. I want to start off by mentioning on Christmas Eve a boy from Guatemala passed away due to inattentive care under U.S. custody. And my question to you is what can we do if anything to improve U.S. supervision of migrants and create and establish safer detention center facilities?”
TOPSHOT – Men from Mexico climb the US-Mexico border wall in Playas de Tijuana, northwestern Mexico, November 18, 2018. (GUILLERMO ARIAS/AFP/Getty Images)
“Well there have been other deaths in custody but Felipe [Alonzo-Gomez] and Jakelin [Caal] are tragic and raise the question that Michelle asked — one of the things that is really important for us to do is to make sure, first of all we want to have more respect for the people coming. Just to be talking about having standards for medical care, Jakelin did not have any attention paid to her in a proper medical way before boarding that bus,” Pelosi began.
Earlier in December, following the death of Jakelin Caal, her father disputed reports that his daughter had not been fed. However, CNN’s Jake Tapper reported that the father had “no complaints” over the treatment her daughter received.
A boy carries a picture of Guatemalan seven-year-old Jakelin Caal, who died in a Texas hospital two days after being taken into custody by US border patrol agents in a remote stretch of the New Mexico desert, as her coffin is taken from Raxruha to the cemetery in San Antonio Secortez, both villages in Alta Verapaz Department, 320 km north of Guatemala City, on December 25, 2018. (Johan ORDONEZ / AFP)
Many doctors “have been suggesting for a while now that there be personnel there assigned that can make judgments about — medical decisions about these people, young people or not,” Pelosi continued. “But these happen to be young, that makes it all the more tragic but shameful that we don’t have that. There were certain protocols that were not followed. The inspector general will be investigating, at least Jakelin’s case and now Felipe’s probably.”
Despite Pelosi’s claim, the father of Alonzo-Gomez denied further medical treatment, according to the Department of Homeland Security. A DHS report revealed that the boy had been taken to the hospital and then discharged with medication. Even with the medication a couple hours later, the boy’s condition continued to worsen. It was at this point that the father declined further medical assistance telling officials his son “had been feeling better.”
The boy passed away a short time later. (RELATED: 8-Year-Old Guatemalan Boy Dies In U.S. Customs And Border Protection Custody)