A young boy from Guatemala died while in the custody of the federal government, U.S. immigration authorities said early Tuesday, the second death of an immigrant child under detention in December.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the 8-year-old died at Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center in New Mexico shortly after midnight on Christmas Day.
According to initial reporting, a Border Patrol agent noticed the child had “showed signs of potential illness,” and he and his father were transferred to the hospital in Alamogordo, N.M.
There, he was diagnosed with a common cold and a fever, was given prescriptions for amoxicillin and ibuprofen, and then released Monday afternoon, the agency said.
On Monday night, he returned with nausea and was vomiting, and died hours later after being admitted.
Border Patrol said that the Guatemalan government has been notified and is in touch with his father and any other family members in the country.
The boy’s official cause of death has not yet been determined, the agency said. The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general has been notified, and Border Patrol’s Office of Professional Responsibility will conduct a review, per agency policy.
More details will be expected “as available and appropriate,” Border Patrol said.
A 7-year-old Guatemalan girl who was apprehended as part of a group of more than 160 migrants wandering in the New Mexico desert earlier this month died while in federal custody.
Jakelin Caal is believed to have died from septic shock, fever, and dehydration hours after she was apprehended. She was traveling with her father when taken into custody by immigration agents.
In November, illegal immigration spiked to its highest level in two years. For the first time in U.S. history, the number of families caught illegally entering the country made up half of all illegal entrants. Roughly 25,000 of the more than 50,000 taken into custody were families.
Caal’s funeral was expected to be held sometime Christmas Day in the tiny Guatemalan village of San Antonio Secortez, where her body was returned Monday.
