The father of the migrant boy who died on Christmas Eve declined treatment for the lad.
But that news somehow hasn’t received much attention.
The Daily Wire,The Blaze and the Daily Caller reported it prominently as a news item in and of itself, along with the ABC affiliate in St. Louis. But others buried the fact in a long timeline about the boy’s apprehension and death and how the Trump administration reacted.
That, of course, helped pound home the anti-Trump narrative that immigration officers are responsible for the boy’s death, and that Trump somehow contributed with his refusal to sign a government funding bill because it does not have funding for a border wall.
Boy Dies
CBP’s timeline shows that immigration officials treated eight-year-old Felipe Alonzo-Gomez and his father kindly and with surpassing concern for the boy’s health.
On December 18, as CNN reported the timeline, Border Patrol agents caught the two illegal aliens “about 3 miles west of the Paso Del Norte port of entry in El Paso” and sent them to the processing center 15 minutes away. “While detained there, they were provided hot food, snacks, juice, and water, and the agents logged six welfare checks.”
On December 20, they landed at the El Paso Border Patrol Stations, where “Felipe and his father were provided with showers, food, juice, and water, and the agents logged 17 welfare checks.”
On December 22 just before 11:30 p.m., border agents transferred the two 80 miles to the Alamogordo Border Patrol Station in Alamogordo, New Mexico, to finalize processing. The El Paso station was overcrowded.
A little after 1 a.m. on December 23, they landed at Alamogordo, and “upon arrival, they were provided with personal hygiene products and meals, and they received several welfare checks.”
{modulepos inner_text_ad}
At 9 a.m. Christmas Eve, “a processing agent noticed that the child was coughing and appeared to have glossy eyes. About 30 minutes later, based on the agents’ observations, Felipe was transferred to Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center in Alamogordo with possible influenza symptoms. He was accompanied by his father.”
At 11:30 a.m., “hospital staff conducted several tests on Felipe for strep throat.” They diagnosed him with a cold and gave him Tylenol. But hospital staff kept the boy at the hospital after an evaluation at 1:20 p.m. disclosed a 103-degree fever.
At 2:50 p.m., the timeline at CNN reported, Felipe was released with ibuprofen and amoxicillin, an antiobiotic. The two were sent to a temporary holding facility and received a hot meal.
At 5 p.m., border agents gave Felipe his medicine and conducted welfare checks.
Two hours later, “Felipe appeared to be nauseous and vomited. Agents were aware of this and helped clean up the vomit. His father declined further medical assistance as the child had been feeling better.”
At 10 p.m., “Felipe appeared lethargic and nauseous again. Because no EMT was on duty, out of caution, agents made the decision to return Felipe and his father to Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center.”
The boy vomited and passed out on the trip, and landed at the hospital 11:07 p.m.
At 11:48 p.m., hospital staff, unable to revive the boy, pronounced him dead.
Parents Not Responsible
So media leftists buried a key fact in the story: The boy’s father declined treatment after the boy vomited. He did nothing, apparently, for three hours until agents returned.
AP, for instance, buried this truth in the 13th paragraph of a story about CBP’s ordering medical checks on all children after the boy’s death. So too did the Washington Post in its story that falsely connected the death to the partial government shutdown that resulted from the Senate’s refusal to fund a border wall.
The boy’s death and the shutdown, as The New American reported yesterday, are unrelated.
Meanwhile, AP continued its open-borders agitation with a story that opened with this paragraph: “The deaths of two migrant children in just over two weeks raised strong new doubts Wednesday about the ability of U.S. border authorities to care for the thousands of minors arriving as part of a surge of families trying to enter the country.”
AP invited the obligatory denunciation of “failure” from the leftist Democrat who will represent El Paso.
AP apparently hasn’t asked when Americans became responsible for everyone and anyone who crosses the border illegally, and why, after such a grueling trip, Americans are responsible when a child dies.
Presumably, the Left believes the parents lack moral agency. Thus, they bear no culpability when their children die after crossing the desert to illegally enter a sovereign country.
