Several freshmen Democratic congresswomen wore pins to the State of the Union address honoring Jakelin Caal Maquin, the 7-year-old Guatemalan girl who died in the custody of Border Patrol back in December.
“We are bringing Jakelin Caal into the room with us during the #SOTU,” Rashida Tlaib tweeted before the speech. “They said 12,800 children are in detention camps via federally contracted sites. Now they said it was more 15,000.”
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.) and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) donned the pin, which featured a photo of Jakelin, to Tuesday night’s address. Jakelin and her father crossed the border illegally with a group of other 163 migrants after surviving a 2,000-mile journey to the U.S.
In less than 48 hours, the girl died from shock and dehydration while in the care of CBP on Dec. 8 in Antelope Wells, New Mexico. Jakelin’s death sparked a nationwide outrcry, calling for humane treatment of migrants crossing the border.
Many criticized the Trump administration’s controversial family separation policy, which was not being enforced at the time of Jakelin’s death,but has separated 15,000 unaccompanied migrant children from their parents. The Democratic congresswomen also wore suffragist white to the State of the Union address in the name of gender equality and women’s rights.
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