U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced Monday evening that more than 250 migrant children taken into custody by federal border agents over the past nine days were referred to medical professionals outside the homeland security agency.
The border agency said in a statement it has relinquished custody of 451 people who arrived at or between ports of entry between Dec. 22-30 so that they could be looked over by nonagency medical personnel at hospitals and clinics.
Of that figure, 259 were kids and 129 of those were children under the age of 5. Another 88 children were between 6 and 14 years old, and 42 children were between 15 and 17 years old.
A total 17 of the 451 people remain hospitalized, and six of those are under the age of 18.
The release of information comes exactly one week after a Guatemalan child died from the flu after being found by Border Patrol in New Mexico.
Earlier in the month, a young girl from Guatemala died while in Border Patrol custody after crossing the international boundary with a group of more than 160 other people. Three agents responded to the large group due to the remoteness of the area they crossed.
CBP provided no previous data of migrants hospitalized prior to Dec. 22 and did not clarify the extent to which referrals might have spiked due to public criticism over the two recent deaths, which are the first in a decade.
“We are facing an unprecedented crisis on the southern border that is putting the most vulnerable populations at risk,” CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said in a statement. “The status quo is not acceptable. As Secretary Nielsen has stated, the system is at the breaking point. Border Patrol stations built decades ago are not resourced to handle this crisis and are not the best facilities to house children with their parents for extended periods.”
Going forward, all minors taken into custody will receive two medical reviews by CBP personnel instead of one.
Medical personnel from the Coast Guard and Public Health Service have also been deployed to the southern border to help.
