Distraught father kills himself in a jail cell after being separated from his family at border
39 year-old Marco Antonio Munoz, a Honduran father who was separated from his wife and child at the U.S. border, is dead after suffering a severe mental breakdown while being held in a Texas jail cell. The news was not publicly disclosed by the Department of Homeland Security, but instead appeared in a report by the local sheriff’s department, which was sourced by The Washington Post.
On May 13th, Munoz was found in a pool of his own blood with an item of clothing around his neck, according to the report and eyewitnesses. Starr County deputies described the event in their sherriff’s report as a “suicide in custody.” Munoz’s death can be directly attributed to the implementation of President Trump’s illegal migration policy, which stipulates that parents can be separated from their children if caught crossing the border.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials did not have any comments about the location of Munoz’s wife and child, nor any additional details about Munoz’s suicide. Assaunta Garcia, an official at the Embassy of Honduras, communicated that the only person authorized to talk about Munoz’s death was the Honduran ambassador, whom Garcia says was too busy with a visit from the Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez.
According to Border Patrol agents, shortly after they told Munoz that he would be separated from his family, he was distraught. “The guy lost his shit… They had to use physical force to take the child out of his hands.” In accordance with Border Patrol policy and procedure, Munoz was then detained and taken to the closest local jail, which was 40 miles away in Rio Grande City where he was observed by guards praying the following morning. When the guards walked the cells at 9:50, they found Munoz lying in the center of the floor unresponsive and with no pulse.