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‘Suicide’ of migrant separated from his wife and child casts harsh light on Donald Trump’s immigration policy

Marco Antonio Munoz, 39, died in a Texas jail after his wife and child were taken to a detention centre that’s been described as a ‘dog kennel’

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In this file photo taken in September 2014, women and children sit in a holding cell at a US Border Patrol processing centre after being detained by agents near the US-Mexico border near McAllen, Texas. A father of one killed himself after being separated from his family in McAllen in a controversial policy started by Donald Trump. Photo: AFP

In May, asylum seeker Marco Antonio Munoz turned himself, his wife and their three-year-old son in to US authorities. Within hours he had been separated from his family under Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy and found dead in a Texas jail cell.

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His death is the latest incident to cast a harsh spotlight on the zero tolerance policy, which advocates for immigrants have denounced as inhumane, and on the processing centre he was taken to, which US Senator Jeff Merkeley recently likened to a dog kennel.

Munoz, 39, and his family crossed into the US from Mexico with on May 12 near Granjeno, a town where Central American families seeking asylum often turn themselves in to Border Patrol agents.

It’s like a kennel. It’s not a jail facility
An agent at McAllen, speaking on condition of anonymity

They were detained and taken with others to a processing centre in nearby McAllen, where men are separated from women and children when they arrive, and unaccompanied children are held separately.

After being told his family would be divided up, Munoz became upset and struggled with agents, according to an agent who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss the case.

Munoz was taken to a jail where, authorities say, he committed suicide.

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In recent months, Border Patrol staff had become concerned about conditions at the processing centre as the number of families being held increased, the agent said.

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