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."