A 16-year-old Guatemalan boy has died in Border Patrol custody in Texas, US officials say, making him the fifth Guatemalan minor to die after being apprehended at the US-Mexico border since December
Carlos Hernandez was apprehended by US Border Patrol agents on 13 May after crossing the border illegally near Hidalgo, Texas, with a group of 70 others.
Early on Sunday morning, Hernandez told staff at the central processing station where he was being held that he was not feeling well, a customs official told reporters.
He was diagnosed with the flu and transferred to the Weslaco Border Patrol Station in south Texas later that day to separate him from others at the processing station.
He was then due to be transferred to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services, but on Monday morning, during a "welfare check", the boy was found unresponsive.
The US Border Patrol Station in Weslaco, Texas, where a 16-year-old Guatemalan boy died. Source: AAP
A Customs and Border Protection statement said the cause of death was not yet known and that the Department of Homeland Security's watchdog and the Guatemalan government had been notified.
"The men and women of US Customs and Border Protection are saddened by the tragic loss of this young man and our condolences are with his family," Acting CBP Commissioner John Sanders said.
"CBP is committed to the health, safety and humane treatment of those in our custody."
The Guatemalan foreign ministry requested that US authorities urgently explain the cause of death, which local and federal law enforcement are investigating.
Five children have now after crossing the US-Mexico border since December. Source: AAP
The boy was the fifth Guatemalan minor since December to die after being apprehended at the US-Mexico border.
Four of them died in US custody, while a fifth child, who crossed the border with his mother in April, died this month after weeks in the hospital, but had already been released from custody.
are traveling to the US-Mexico border and asking for asylum in the United States, fleeing poverty and violence in their home countries.
From October 2018 through to this April, nearly 293,000 unaccompanied children or people travelling in families were apprehended at the southern US border - nearly four times the number during the same period the prior year.
Since 22 December, CBP has transported about 69 people a day to higher level of care facilities, including urgent care and hospitals, the official said.
The Trump administration has asked Congress for $4.5 billion in immediate emergency funding, which would represent a 44 per cent increase in spending for programs that house, feed, transport and oversee the migrants.
But immigrant advocates say the administration's policies, including making it more difficult for migrants to seek asylum at official ports of entry, contribute to making their journeys more arduous and drive migrants to seek out remote border outposts badly equipped to care for children.
Julie Linton, co-chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Immigrant Health Special Interest Group, said she was concerned about sick children potentially being housed in bare-bones Border Patrol facilities for extended periods of time.
President Donald Trump's administration has been criticised for making it harder to seek asylum in the US. Source: AAP
"There certainly need to be conditions that do not include lying on a mat with a Mylar blanket on a floor that is cold and cage-like fencing that extends to the ceiling," she said.
"We absolutely need pediatric health experts at the border."
