You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Guinean Asylum Seeker Dies in Open-Air Detention Site Near San Diego

HeadlineOct 17, 2023

In California, a 29-year-old asylum seeker from Guinea has reportedly died while being held by U.S. immigration officials in an open-air detention camp along the San Diego border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection provided few details of what happened, and a cause of death has not been determined. Immigration and human rights groups had repeatedly warned of heat waves and other dangers faced by thousands of asylum seekers — including babies and toddlers — detained in the outdoor Border Patrol desert camps near Jacumba Springs. The agency has been accused of failing to provide adequate food, water, hygiene products and medical care. Erika Pinheiro of Al Otro Lado said in a statement, “This is the first death, but will not be the last if Border Patrol continues to use these camps in a futile and inhumane attempt to deter migrants rather than process them expeditiously.”

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top