<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON DC:\u00a0<\/strong>A Guatemalan woman whose infant daughter died after being held by the United States (US) immigration authorities denounced the\u00a0\u2018cruelty\u2019\u00a0of the country\u2019s migrant detention centers on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Yazmin Juarez spoke out at \u201cKids in Cages: Inhumane Treatment at the Border,\u201d a congressional hearing staged amid a series of scandals over poor conditions suffered by detained migrants that has rocked Washington.<\/p>\n \u201cIf today I can make a change, if I can make a difference by telling you what is happening with the ICE detentions, the cruelty\u2026 it is extremely unfair,\u201d a tearful Juarez told reporters before the hearing, referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.<\/p>\n Juarez said she fled to the United States last year with her 19-month-old Mariee \u201cbecause I feared for our lives in Guatemala.\u201d<\/p>\n She crossed the border and claimed asylum but says she and Mariee were \u201clocked in a freezing cold cage for a few days,\u201d then moved to an ICE detention center, when her daughter became ill.<\/p>\n \u201cI begged the doctors and medical staff to give her the care I knew she needed but they didn\u2019t,\u201d Juarez said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen ICE finally released us, I took Mariee\u2026 to a doctor and then to the emergency room. But it was too late. Mariee never left the hospital,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Speaking before the House Civil Rights and Civil Liberties subcommittee, Juarez said that \u201cI watched my baby girl die \u2013 slowly and painfully \u2013 a few months before her second birthday.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe world should know what is happening to so many babies and children inside these ICE detention facilities,\u201d she said. \u201cMy bright beautiful girl is gone but I hope her story will spur America\u2019s government to act.\u201d<\/p>\n Representative Elijah Cummings, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, denounced what he termed \u201cgovernment-sponsored child abuse on a grand scale.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere must be greater accountability,\u201d said Representative Joaquin Castro, the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.<\/p>\n Castro called for a \u201clong-term Marshall Plan for Central America,\u201d referring to massive US investment that helped Europe rebuild following World War II.<\/p>\n On Monday, United Nations human rights\u00a0chief Michelle Bachelet said she was \u201cdeeply shocked\u201d by conditions under which migrants and refugees are held at US detention centers.<\/p>\n The Department of Homeland Security\u2019s watchdog released a report last week that warned of \u201cdangerous overcrowding\u201d in multiple centers holding thousands of migrants seeking to remain in the US.<\/p>\n Most are fleeing violence and poverty in Central America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WASHINGTON DC:\u00a0A Guatemalan woman whose infant daughter died after being held by the United States (US) immigration authorities denounced the\u00a0\u2018cruelty\u2019\u00a0of the country\u2019s migrant detention centers on Wednesday. Yazmin Juarez spoke out at \u201cKids in Cages: Inhumane Treatment at the Border,\u201d a congressional hearing staged amid a series of scandals over poor conditions suffered by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,3],"tags":[289,291,288],"class_list":["post-2087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-world","tag-ice","tag-south-america","tag-us-government","post_format-post-format-aside"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}