Baby died following ICE detention; Congresswoman doing her job

Guatemalan mother Yazmin Juarez told a Congressional investigating committee on Wednesday that, after she lawfully applied for asylum because of fearing for for her life, she and her healthy daughter were confined by U.S. immigration agents along with many other children in Dilley, Texas. Mariee caught the flu, received no medical treatment while in custody, and died in a U.S. hospital soon after release.

Juarez testified that an ICE agent had told her, “You know, this country is for Americans, Trump is my president, and we can take your little girl away from you and lock you in jail.”...Meanwhile, elsewhere in Texas, one of the new crop of women of color elected to the House in 2018 is doing her best to help migrants get a fair hearing. Rep. Veronica Escobar of El Paso detailed some of her Congressional staff to help a few migrants who may have had a legal claim to be admitted to make their case. The Customs and Border Protection agency had sent them back to Mexico. Apparently tipped off by someone in CBP, rightwing media is denouncing Escobar. The Congresswoman is not backing down:

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14) — El Paso Rep. Veronica Escobar is responding to accusations of sending her staff to Ciudad Juarez to teach asylum seekers how to exploit and work around the “Remain in Mexico” policy.

Escobar said that is untrue and calls those false allegations a diversion from rising tensions with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency.

Escobar said she and her staff have been working with El Paso lawyers who have clients seeking asylum, and have been sent back to Mexico in violation of CBP’s policy.

“It’s no coincidence I think that these false allegations are coming on the heels of the fact that there’s this secret [CBP agents' racist] Facebook page. It is an effort to intimidate me to prevent me and my staff from performing one of our fundamental functions which is oversight of the government that we fund,” said Escobar. ... Escobar said since those allegations came to light, she and her staff have received multiple threats.

The Congresswoman combines competence with passion. See here her speech on the floor of Congress, surrounded by some of her Democratic colleagues, after the drowning deaths of a father and his child in the Rio Grande: