Mom suing U.S. government for $60 million after toddler dies following immigration detainment

3rdWorld

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So according to thecoli you can do as you please with an assylum seeker or refugee..you can rape them, beat them up, possibly even murder them but its all legal and they have no real rights because they are in the country without a passport..if thats how your brain thinks, good luck navigating this world and staying out of prison..
 

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Immigrant mother loses San Antonio trial over daughter’s death​

By Guillermo Contreras,Staff writerFeb 13, 2024

Yazmin Juárez Coyoy, front left, leaves the federal courthouse in San Antonio on Feb. 6. A San Antonio jury decided Tuesday that Juárez failed to prove her toddler got sick at an area immigration facility in 2018 and, as a result, died six weeks after their release — the main allegation of her federal lawsuit against Tennessee-based CoreCivic, the operator of the complex in Dilley.

Guillermo Contreras/Staff

A San Antonio jury decided Tuesday that a Guatemalan immigrant failed to prove her toddler got sick at an area immigration facility in 2018 and, as a result, died six weeks after their release — the main allegation of the mother’s federal lawsuit against the operator of the complex.

By an 8-1 verdict, jurors found Memphis, Tenn.-based CoreCivic was not negligent while housing Mariee Camyl Newberry Juárez and her mother, Yazmin Juárez Coyoy, in the South Texas Family Residential Center in March 2018.

After they were released on March 25, Mariee spent six weeks in hospitals in New Jersey and Philadelphia, and died May 10, 2018, from complications from two viruses. She was 21 months old.

Juárez, now in her mid-20s, cried as U.S. District Judge Fred Biery read the verdict. She was consoled by her lead lawyer, Stanton Jones.

MORE COVERAGE: Jury to decide if prison company is liable for Guatemalan toddler’s death

CoreCivic defended its Dilley complex in a written statement.

“We care about every person entrusted to us, especially vulnerable populations for which our partners rightfully have very high standards that we work hard to meet each day,” the company said in a statement. “Our hearts continue to go out to this family for the tragic loss of their child.”

The jury, whose nine members were all Hispanic, deliberated a day and a half after closing arguments on Friday. The trial ran all of last week.

The jurors appeared to be at an impasse Tuesday morning when they sent a note asking the judge to allow them to review a trial exhibit. Biery agreed — and added in his note that both sides in the case agreed to accept an 8-1 verdict. Jurors reached a decision about an hour and a half later.

Juárez sued CoreCivic in 2019, claiming Mariee was healthy when the pair arrived at the facility but contracted two viruses while they were held in crowded conditions in a housing unit. Initially, the suit sought up to $40 million in damages, but Juárez’s lawyers did not specify to the jury how much they were seeking in damages.

Lawyers for Juárez argued in court last week that a boy in the same housing unit was sick and that Mariee may have contracted the viruses from him. They also argued that CoreCivic should have had isolation protocols in place to separate the sick from the healthy.

“They failed to provide safe conditions appropriate for small children detained at the South Texas Family Residential Center,” Jones said in his closing argument on Friday. “They had a duty to provide safe living conditions for children in their care and, as you have heard all week, they did not do that.”

'WATCHING MY DAUGHTER DIE': Migrant says daughter caught fatal viruses in a Texas detention facility

But attorneys for CoreCivic said it was impossible to prove that the child was infected at the facility — and countered that Mariee was either already sick before leaving Guatemala or infected along the way.

The mother and daughter slept for four nights on the floor of a makeshift structure near McAllen — with about 50 other mothers and children — operated by Border Patrol before Juárez and Mariee were moved to the Dilley facility.

“They didn’t even come close to proving liability in this case,” Daniel Struck, one of CoreCivic’s lawyers, said in his closing argument. “They have to prove that defendants breached the standard of care by having beds too close together in an unsanitary environment, and that Mariee caught these two viruses from a boy there. We all know they didn’t prove that.”

During the weeklong trial, a vice president for CoreCivic and a former warden said those held at the complex had access to multiple onsite health clinics administered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The clinics were open 24 hours a day, seven days a week for appointments and medical emergencies.

The facility is about 70 miles southwest of San Antonio and can hold up to 2,400 people. CoreCivic opened it in 2014 under a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold women and children migrants.

Juárez also sued ICE in 2020 in federal court in New Jersey, alleging negligent medical care at the Dilley facility. The government agency, not CoreCivic, handles medical care at the Dilley complex.

Jones also represents Juárez in that lawsuit, and said in closing arguments that he planned to hold “ICE responsible.” That case is pending in New Jersey.


Feb 13, 2024
 
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