Fifth Guatemalan minor dies in US Border Patrol custody

Published May 20, 2019

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WASHINGTON - A 16-year-old Guatemalan boy

died on Monday in U.S. Border Patrol custody in Texas, U.S.

officials said, making him the fifth Guatemalan minor to die

after being apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border since

December.

The boy, who was not identified, was apprehended by U.S.

Border Patrol agents on May 13 after crossing the border

illegally, according to a statement from U.S. Customs and Border

Protection, which oversees the Border Patrol. 

He was taken from

a central processing station in the Rio Grande Valley to the

Weslaco Border Patrol Station in south Texas on Sunday and was

due to be transferred to the custody of the Department of Health

and Human Services, which oversees the care of minor migrant

children who cross into the United States without adult family

members.

But on Monday morning, during a "welfare check," the boy was

found unresponsive, according to the CBP statement. 

The

statement said the cause of death was not yet known, and that

the Guatemalan government and the Department of Homeland

Security watchdog office had been notified.

"The men and women of U.S. Customs and Border Protection are

saddened by the tragic loss of this young man and our

condolences are with his family," said Acting CBP Commissioner

John Sanders. "CBP is committed to the health, safety and humane

treatment of those in our custody."

The boy was the fifth Guatemalan minor since December to die

after being apprehended at the U.S. border in Mexico. 

Four of

them died while in U.S. custody. A fifth child, who crossed the

border with his mother in April, died this month after weeks in

the hospital, but had already been released from U.S. custody at

the time of his death.

Record numbers of families from Central America are

traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border and asking for asylum in the

United States, fleeing poverty and violence in their home

countries. 

From October 2018 through this April, nearly 293,000

unaccompanied children or people traveling in families were

apprehended at the southern U.S. border - nearly four times the

number during the same period the prior year.

That has in turn strained U.S. border facilities, which are

the first stop for migrants after they are detained. Reuters

photos taken last week showed adults and children outside the

U.S. Border Patrol station in McAllen, Texas, sleeping on the

ground and rigging up makeshift awnings with reflective blankets

to shelter form the sun. 

One Guatemalan man told

Reuters that he and his 9-year-old son had spent nearly two

weeks in Border Patrol custody in Texas, sometimes sleeping on

the ground.

The Trump administration has asked Congress for $4.5 billion

in immediate emergency funding, which would represent a 44%

increase in spending for programs that house, feed, transport

and oversee the migrants.

But immigrant advocates say the administration's policies,

including making it more difficult for migrants to seek asylum

at official ports of entry, contribute to making their journeys

more arduous and drive migrants to seek out remote border

outposts badly equipped to care for children.

Julie Linton, co-chair of the American Academy of

Pediatrics' Immigrant Health Special Interest Group, said she

was concerned about sick children potentially being housed in

bare-bones Border Patrol facilities for extended periods of

time.

"There certainly need to be conditions that do not include

lying on a mat with a Mylar blanket on a floor that is cold, and

cage-like fencing that extends to the ceiling," she said on a

conference call with reporters on Monday. "We absolutely need

pediatric health experts at the border."

Reuters

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