Lawmakers request Homeland Security probe of migrant boy's death in U.S. custody
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Five Democratic lawmakers in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Friday requested her agency probe the Monday death of 8-year-old Felipe Gomez Alonzo of Guatemala while in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody.
"The timeline, action, and factors that led to Felipe's death are still developing," the letter concludes, "but the information that has become public so far is alarming and demands immediate attention and investigation." It is signed by Sens. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), along with Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.).
The New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator reported late Thursday Felipe tested positive for influenza B, but a cause of death has yet to be declared.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
