Girl Who Died on US Border Goes Home, But Family's Not There

The body of a 7-year-old girl who died while in custody of the US Border Patrol arrived in her native Guatemala on Sunday and was to be driven hours into the countryside and handed over to family members for a last goodbye. A white coffin containing Jakelin Caal was received in the afternoon at Guatemala City's international airport by representatives of the country's Foreign Ministry and then loaded into the back of a black hearse by workers in orange vests. No family members were on hand. Domingo Caal, the girl's grandfather, told the AP that the family didn't have money to travel from their poor hamlet to Guatemala's capital.

At Domingo Caal's home in the village of San Antonio Secortez, in the department of Alta Verapaz, relatives set up a small wooden altar flanked by vases overflowing with flowers, with photographs of Jakelin and the hand-lettered message, "We miss you." Behind the house, dozens of women prepared tamales and beans to feed mourners. Relatives expected the body to arrive early Monday. Caal and her father, Nery Caal, were traveling with a group of 163 migrants who arrived at the New Mexico border earlier this month. After they were taken into custody Dec. 6, the father told a US agent that the girl was sick and vomiting. The father signed a paper stating that Jakelin was in good health, but it is not clear how much he understood what it said. The form was in English, and agents read it to him in Spanish. (Here's what likely killed her.)