May 18 (UPI) — An 8-year-old girl died while in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody in Texas, authorities said late Wednesday.
The child died while she and family were in U.S. custody at the Harlingen, Texas, border facility, CBP said in a statement.
“Emergency Medical Services were called to the station and transported her to the local hospital where she was pronounced dead,” the brief statement said.
The incident is under investigation headed by the Office of Professional Responsibility. The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General and the Harlingen Police Department were also notified, CBP said.
Neither the child nor her family were identified. Their country of origin and when they enter U.S. custody were not released.
The girl died a week after Angel Eduardo Maradiaga Espinoza, a 17-year-old unaccompanied Honduran migrant, also died while in U.S. custody.
Espinoza was pronounced dead May 10 at Mease Countryside Hospital in Safety Harbor, Fla., where he was transported that morning after he was found unconscious at a local shelter.
Title 42 — a COVID-19-era health measure under which millions of migrants and asylum seekers were expelled from the country — expired on Friday, sparking fears that a migrant surge would follow.
However, border officials state that so far those worries have been unfounded.
Blas Nunez-Neto, Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for immigration, told reporters during a press conference Wednesday, that daily encounters at the border have dropped from more than 10,000 to around 4,400 a day.
Nunez-Neto said the decrease of 56% is less than half the average number of encounters they saw in the four days prior to Title 42’s expiration.