An eight-year-old girl has died in US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody after a medical emergency, the agency says.
The girl and her family were detained at a border patrol site in Harlingen, Texas when she fell ill, the CBP said.
The agency said she was transported to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead on Wednesday.
It said it would investigate the incident and that the Department of Homeland Security had been notified.
The child’s death appears to be the first in US Border Patrol custody for several years.
The government did not provide any information on the medical emergency the girl experienced or other circumstances surrounding her death. It said it would share more details as they became available.
It comes a week after a 17-year-old Honduran migrant who arrived unaccompanied in the US died at a government shelter facility in Florida.
Honduran migrant teenager dies in US custody
Thousands at US border as migrant policy expires
It comes shortly after the expiration of Title 42, a Covid-19-era border policy that allowed the US to quickly expel migrants who crossed into the country illegally.
Border officials had been bracing for a sharp rise in migrant crossings in the wake of its expiration, though initial data shows US officials saw a much smaller surge than expected.
Source: bbcnews
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