By Billal Rahman
Immigration Reporter
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A migrant died in a detention center on the US-Mexico border after U.S. officials allegedly confiscated her medicine.
Idania Osorio Dominguez, 52, died in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection at Eagle Pass, Texas.
Her daughter, Lianet Alvarez Osorio, has told Newsweek that she only discovered her mother's death in a press release issued by border authorities.
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Dominguez, who had been prescribed medicine for high blood pressure, was detained by the CBP over an alleged immigration violation on 2 January 2023. While in custody she suffered a cardiac arrest and subsequently died.
Her family's lawyer, Andrew Fels of Al Otro Lado, told Newsweek: "They never gave her the medication while she was in their custody for about six hours. She went through a medical examination, where they took down her medical information but never gave her the medication.
"Five hours after she went into their custody, she complained about chest pains, and then she collapsed and died. We still don't have a death certificate yet."
A report by the Kino Border Initiative, a humanitarian group, has previously claimed that border officials routinely confiscate migrants' belongings, including clothing and medicine.
Osorio alleges that went she to retrieve her mother's possessions, her heart medication was absent. She had spent two weeks frantically searching for her mother.
In court documents seen by Newsweek, she said: "No one should learn of their mother's death from a press release issued weeks after her passing. Particularly not when agency policy dictates a swift notification be provided to the next of kin. But this is what happened."
It remains unclear why Dominguez, a Cuban national, entered the U.S. via the Mexico border or why she was detained.
Under the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, Cubans have the right to become legal permanent residents once they have reached the U.S. and have been here for one year, assuming that the U.S. Attorney General doesn't object.
Osorio is now bringing legal action against the CBP after being frustrated in her efforts to see official documents relating to her mother's detention and death.
Fels has claimed that the CBP "will go to great lengths to try and stop you from seeing documents".
"There's a demonstrated pattern of denying access to full investigative records after an in-custody death to the family," he told Newsweek.
The court document also alleges that "understaffing" and "inadequate records" were "key failings" that contributed to Dominguez's death.
Border officials have said a nurse assessed Dominguez and that she she "did not complain of any chest pains and the nurse practitioner recommended she continue taking her medication".
She was subsequently cleared for travel but "collapsed on the ground near two other female migrants" and was taken to a medical center, where she later died after attempts to resuscitate her failed, CBP said.
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Fels said: "She [Osorio] thought her mother would pass through border protection, and they would be released. That day, she speaks with her mother on the phone, and she sounds fine, and she never hears from her mom again."
Osorio's case follows a wider action against ICE and CBP brought by Fels and his colleagues at Al Otro Lado, who provide free legal and humanitarian support to refugees, deportees, and migrants on both sides of the US-Mexico border.
Al Otro Lado filed the complaint in May 2023 after ICE failed to respond to requests for public records on the agency's internal policies around processing migrants.
U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb ordered ICE to release all of its 339 active policies and has given the agency until 31 October to produce the documents.
Newsweek has reached out to CBP for comment.
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