Squabbling Breaks Out At Hearing Over Young Migrants’ Deaths On Same Day Authorities Confirm 6th Child Fatality

The Associated Press: Girl, 10, 6th Known Child To Die After US Border Detention
U.S. authorities say a 10-year-old girl from El Salvador died last year after being detained by border authorities in a previously unreported case. The death marks the sixth known case in the last year. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday that she died on Sept. 29 at an Omaha, Nebraska, hospital of fever and respiratory distress. (5/22)

The Associated Press: House Hearing Grows Heated Over Migrant Children's Deaths
A Democratic lawmaker on Wednesday blamed the Trump administration's border policies for the deaths of migrant children, an accusation the acting head of the Homeland Security Department called "appalling." The brouhaha came at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on the budget for the sprawling law enforcement department, which has seen major upheaval over the past two months following a White House-orchestrated shake-up. Kevin McAleenan, the head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, was named to lead the department temporarily following the resignation of Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. (Long, 5/22)

The New York Times: Flu Outbreak Prompts Largest Border Detention Center To Stop Processing Migrants
Border Patrol officials temporarily stopped processing apprehended migrants at the agency’s largest detention center, in the South Texas city of McAllen, after nearly three dozen detainees there became ill with the flu. The halt was ordered late Tuesday, a day after the death of a 16-year-old Guatemalan boy who was sick with the flu and had been in custody at the center. The McAllen facility resumed full operations Wednesday afternoon. (Fernandez and Kanno-Youngs, 5/22)

The Associated Press: Flu Outbreak Sickens Over 30 Migrants At Border Center
The processing center is a converted warehouse that holds hundreds of parents and children in large, fenced-in pens that gained international attention last year when it held children separated from their parents. The government closed the facility after the flu outbreak, sent in cleaning crews to disinfect the building and plans to reopen it soon. The 32 sick children and adults have been quarantined at a smaller processing center, according to a U.S. Border Patrol official who spoke with reporters on condition of anonymity because there is an ongoing investigation. Their ages were unknown. (Long and Spagat, 5/22)

In other news —

Los Angeles Times: This Immigrant Rights Champion Runs A Migrant Youth Home That Was Repeatedly Cited For Safety Violations
Los Angeles lawyer Peter Schey has long been a trailblazing courtroom defender of immigrant youth. He helped argue the Supreme Court case that ensured the right of children without legal status to attend public schools. He also helped secure the Flores settlement — a landmark 1997 agreement to safeguard migrant children held by the government, which gave his legal foundation the right to inspect those shelters. That case also inspired him to run his own shelter for homeless migrant youths. (Carcamo, 5/22)

California Healthline: Heat And Violence Pose Twin Threats For Asylum-Seekers Waiting At Border
It wasn’t even May before thermometers hit 100 degrees in this Mexican border city. Tania was washing clothes for her two daughters when she started to feel queasy and weak. She lay down in a bed at the stifling migrant shelter where she’d taken refuge with her fiance and children. But the throbbing pain and nausea wouldn’t go away, and she fainted. She was taken to a Mexican Red Cross hospital, one of the few places where asylum-seekers like her, waiting at the U.S. border to plead their case, can go in an emergency. (Barry-Jester, 5/22)