Whenever there is overcrowding at Border Patrol facilities, there are many things that can go wrong. The most recent example of this is the death of 8-year-old Anadith Danay Reyes Álvarez, a Panamanian, who died from sickness after being in a processing site with her family for a longer period of time than what is supposed to be the standard 72 hours.
Because of the change in immigration policies by the Biden administration, family units and unaccompanied minors have mostly been the ones who cross the U.S.-Mexico border to hand themselves in to Border Patrol so they can be processed and released into the United States while pursing claims of asylum. This has led to facilities at border to be chronically overcapacity.
The New York Times reported Anadith and her family crossed into Brownsville, Texas, on May 9 with other illegal immigrants, right before Title 42 was about to expire. Anadith had suffered from a heart condition and had sickle cell anemia, which her family made aware to medical personnel when they were sent to the Border Patrol facility in Donna, Texas:
Between the evening of May 14 and the afternoon of May 17, when Anadith died, she was seen nine times by medical professionals at the Border Patrol holding facility in Harlingen, Texas. No one consulted with an on-call pediatrician about her symptoms or treatment.
Before arriving at the Harlingen facility, Anadith was seen by a medical professional on May 10 at a Customs and Border Protection facility in Donna as part of the intake process, and she was seen again on May 14, when she complained of abdominal pain, nasal congestion and a cough. At that time, she was diagnosed with and treated for influenza A. She and her family were transferred to the Harlington facility, where the Border Patrol holds migrants in medical isolation.
A nurse practitioner who saw Anadith told investigators that she had dismissed three or four requests from the child’s mother to call an ambulance or take her to a hospital. Anadith was seen four times by medical personnel on the day she died, but officials did not call for emergency assistance until Anadith’s mother carried her to the health unit a fifth time as Anadith appeared to be having a seizure and soon became unresponsive.
CBP has said they have worked to ensure processed migrants who are "medically fragile" to be released from custody sooner than non-sick individuals, along with sending medical professionals from the Department of Health and Human Services.
It speaks to how chaos at the border leads to unnecessary deaths. That is exemplified by the historic high number of illegal immigrants dying at the southern border under the Biden administration. By enticing people to not enter the country legally, it has overwhelmed the system and corners have been cut to appease leaders in Washington, D.C. in an attempt to avoid bad headlines.
