A 16-year-old unaccompanied Guatemalan boy who died Monday while being held at a Border Patrol station in Texas appears to have been held in custody for seven consecutive days despite a policy that individuals be processed and released within 72 hours, or three days.
The boy was apprehended after illegally crossing from Reynosa, Tamaulipas, in Mexico into Hidalgo, Texas, Monday, on May 13.
Customs and Border Protection said in a statement released Monday the unnamed teen was initially taken to a regional processing center in McAllen, Texas, then transferred to a smaller Border Patrol station in Weslaco, Texas, at some point last week.
The child was “due for placement with Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement,” an indication he did not arrive in the U.S. with a parent or guardian, or was found to be with an adult who was not his parent. The Trafficking Victims Reauthorization Protection Act of 2008 mandated Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement care for minors.
On Monday, the boy was found “un-responsive” during a “welfare check.”
CBP’s National Standards on Transport, Escort, Detention, and Search from October 2015 states, “Detainees should generally not be held for longer than 72 hours in CBP hold rooms or holding facilities. Every effort must be made to hold detainees for the least amount of time required for their processing, transfer, release, or repatriation as appropriate and as operationally feasible.”
Those in custody are typically held with anywhere from 10 to 50 people in a jail-like or fenced-in room, not in individual rooms. It’s not clear if others in the room of minors or families where the boy would likely have been held notified Border Patrol about the boy’s condition or were aware the boy was not OK.
A Border Patrol official based in the Rio Grande Valley Sector where the death took place said Monday afternoon he was not aware why the child was held seven days or who he arrived with May 13.
CBP said the cause of death is unknown and its Office of Professional Responsibility will investigate events surrounding the incident.
NBC News, who first reported the 16-year-old’s death said it marked the fifth child death while in CBP custody since October, the start of fiscal 2019.
A CBP official who asked to speak on background said that statement was false, adding a toddler who died in early May had been released from their custody one month before dying.
[Also read: Guatemalan toddler apprehended at border dies after weeks in hospital]
