A child has died in Customs and Border Patrol Custody near the US-Mexico border (Picture: AFP)
An 8-year-old migrant died in US Border Patrol custody, the federal agency said on Wednesday.
The tragic death occurred at a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facility in Harlingen, Texas – just north of the US-Mexican border crossing at Los Indios International Bridge.
‘The child and her family were in custody at the Harlingen Station where she experienced a medical emergency,’ CBP said in a statement. ‘Emergency Medical Services were called to the station and transported her to the local hospital where she was pronounced dead.’
The child’s death will be investigated by the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility. Local law enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees CBP, were also notified of the death.
Migrants wait in line to enter a CBP facility in El Paso, Texas (Picture: John Moore/Getty Images)
No further details have been released about the child, her family, her country of origin, or the nature of her medical emergency.
The death comes less than one week after the US ended Title 42, the COVID-19 border restrictions that blocked migrants from seeking asylum in the United States based on public health law.
Prior to the expiration, CBP encountered an average of 10,000 migrants at the border per day, the agency reported.
Migrants wait the border wall to board a bus after surrendering to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Border Patrol agents for immigration and asylum claim processing (Picture: PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
Although critics warned that an even bigger surge of migrants would overwhelm CBP if Title 42 was allowed to expire, far fewer migrants have arrived in the week since the policy ended.
‘We have seen a substantial decrease in unlawful crossings at the border and irregular migration, averaging less than half that many encounters or less than 5,000 a day over the last three days,’ said Blas Nunez-Neto, the DHS Assistant Undersecretary for Border and Immigration Policy on Monday.
According to the DHS, about 28,000 migrants were in federal custody on May 10 – the day before Title 42 expired. That number dropped to about 22,000 on Sunday, a 23% decrease.
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The tragic death occurred at a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facility in Harlingen, Texas.
