The US Border Patrol said on Wednesday that an 8-year-old migrant passed away while under their care.
The unfortunate tragedy took place at a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) station in Harlingen, Texas, just to the north of the Los Indios International Bridge border crossing between the United States and Mexico.
The youngster and her family were being held at the Harlingen Station when she had a medical emergency, according to a statement from CBP. Emergency Medical Services were called to the station, and after being taken there, she was declared dead.
The child’s death will be investigated by the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility. Local law enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees CBP, were also notified of the death.
No further details have been released about the child, her family, her country of origin, or the nature of her medical emergency.
The death comes less than one week after the US ended Title 42, the COVID-19 border restrictions that blocked migrants from seeking asylum in the United States based on public health law.
Prior to the expiration, CBP encountered an average of 10,000 migrants at the border per day, the agency reported.
Although critics warned that an even bigger surge of migrants would overwhelm CBP if Title 42 was allowed to expire, far fewer migrants have arrived in the week since the policy ended.
‘We have seen a substantial decrease in unlawful crossings at the border and irregular migration, averaging less than half that many encounters or less than 5,000 a day over the last three days,’ said Blas Nunez-Neto, the DHS Assistant Undersecretary for Border and Immigration Policy on Monday.
According to the DHS, about 28,000 migrants were in federal custody on May 10 – the day before Title 42 expired. That number dropped to about 22,000 on Sunday, a 23% decrease.