Domingo Caal, 61, holds a smartphone displaying a photo of his granddaughter Jakelin. Photograph: Oliver de Ros/AP
The ambulance arrived quickly, but it was decided to evacuate the girl by helicopter because the road trip to El Paso in Texas was four hours.
Just over 27 hours later, despite desperate efforts to save her, seven-year-old Jakelin Amei Rosmery Caal Maquin was dead.
The DHS said during the screening: “The father denied that either he or his daughter were ill. This denial was recorded on Form I-779 signed by the father. At this time, they were offered water and food and had access to restrooms.”
At 4am the bus returned for the second group. “Around 0500, as the second group of detainees – including the child and father – was preparing to depart … the father advised border patrol agents that his child had become sick and was vomiting,” the DHS said.
Her grandfather said that the journey had taken about a week and her father had paid a human trafficker to get them across the border, making their crossing into a desolate section of New Mexico wilderness known as the Bootheel, where the border cuts across the mountainous Chihuahua desert.
It was after dark and they were part of a group of 163 people, apparently including dozens of unaccompanied children, who had made it to Antelope Wells, New Mexico, considered the most remote spot along America’s entire southern border.