A male migrant from El Salvador died Sunday afternoon shortly after he was taken into custody by Border Patrol agents in southeastern Texas.
The 33-year-old unnamed man is the fifth person to die while in the custody of Customs and Border Protection since the fiscal year started last October. A sixth person died after passing through Border Patrol custody earlier this year.
“A 33-year old Salvadoran man suffered a seizure and passed away after emergency medical personnel attempted to save his life,” acting CBP Commissioner John P. Sanders said in a statement issued late Sunday. “On behalf of the men and women of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, we extend our deepest condolences to those who are just learning of the tragic death of their loved one.”
Deaths of those in CBP custody have received national attention since December because they represent an uptick compared to previous years when a few people died each year, according to the Southern Border Communities Coalition.
Immigrant advocates and lawmakers have criticized the Department of Homeland Security over the overcrowded conditions at CBP facilities along the southern border and inadequate medical care for those in custody. Just last week, a DHS inspector general report found 900 people were being held in a Border Patrol station in El Paso, Texas, that was suitable for only 125 people.
An additional migrant who died in May has been referred to in media reports as an additional death in custody, but he had been released from custody a month prior to dying.
Border crossings have surged in recent months to the most per month in 12 years, forcing the CBP to handle numerous more cases of migrants arriving in various states of health.
In the most recent incident, CBP said agents from the Rio Grande Valley region of Texas encountered a man near Roma, Texas, at 12:10 p.m. CT Sunday. The agents took the man into custody.
At 12:22 p.m., the agents observed the man “suffering from an apparent seizure” and called emergency medical services. EMTs arrived on scene at 12:29 then took him to a local hospital at 12:45.
“Despite all efforts to save the 33-year-old man’s life, hospital authorities pronounced him deceased,” CBP said in a statement.
CBP said it notified the man’s family, the Salvadoran government, and the DHS Office of the Inspector General. CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility has also opened an investigation into the death, which is protocol.
A Guatemalan teenage boy died from the flu in May, two Guatemalan children died in December, a two-year-old Guatemalan toddler died a month after being released from custody, and a 16-year-old Guatemalan boy died after being transferred to Health and Human Services custody.
