An eight-year-old illegal Guatemalan migrant boy who had been detained by the US border patrol died Tuesday, in what is the second case of a minor who died in the custody of US authorities this month.
“An eight-year-old Guatemalan national who had been detained by the United States Border Guard service died shortly after midnight on December 25 at the Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center in Alamogordo, New Mexico.” , the United States Border Guard Service (CBP) told AFP in a statement.
The text adds that during day 24 the child had shown “cold symptoms” that later evolved into “nausea and vomiting.” In the statement, authorities explain that the child was initially diagnosed with a common cold and when the authorities were ready to discharge him they realized that he had a fever.
“The child was kept under observation for 90 minutes and then discharged from the hospital in the middle of the afternoon of December 24 with a prescription of amoxicillin and ibuprofen,” the authorities said.
At night, the picture evolved and the child began with nausea and vomiting and was transferred back to the medical center, where he finally died shortly after midnight.
The authorities indicated that the causes of the death of the child are not known and promised that an “independent and in-depth examination of the circumstances” of the death will be carried out.
On December 8, Guatemalan girl Jakelin Caal died in El Paso, Texas, hospital for causes not yet revealed after being detained with her father after illegally crossing the border from Mexico on the night of December 6. According to the Washington Post, which cited the CBP, the girl would have died of “dehydration and shock.”
The case of Jakelin Caal generated great indignation in the United States and a delegation of congressmen who visited the facilities where the girl was detained denounced “systemic failures” in the process and deplorable hygiene conditions.
After the death of the girl, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced an investigation, whose results will be presented to Congress and will be public.
“I am disheartened to learn of the death of a second child under detention,” New York House Representative Nydia Velazquez wrote on Twitter. “We must demand responsibility, find answers and put an end to the odious and dangerous policy against the migrants of this administration,” he added.
President Donald Trump promotes a policy of zero tolerance against immigration, in which 2,300 underage migrants were separated from their parents between May 5 and June 9, something that generated outrage in the country and in the world.
