An 8-year-old girl died in Texas while in Border Patrol custody Wednesday following a “medical emergency,” officials said.
The young girl was with her family at the Harlingen Station when she experienced the emergency, Customs and Border Protection said in a short statement released late Wednesday.
“Emergency Medical Services were called to the station and transported her to the local hospital where she was pronounced dead,” CBP said in the statement.
It is unknown where the girl and her family came from. The cause of death was also not revealed.
The 8-year-old’s death comes less than a week after a teen migrant from Honduras died while in government custody in Florida.
Angel Eduardo Maradiaga, 17, died after he traveled into the US without a parent or accompanying guardian, officials said Friday.
He died two days prior on May 10, CBS reported.
He was being held in a shelter near Tampa run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement that is under the umbrella of the Department of Health and Human Services.
A “medically fragile” 4-year-old Honduran child also died in HHS custody in March, but that was not confirmed until last week, according to CBS.
CPB said Wednesday the 8-year-old girl’s death would be investigated by the Office of Professional Responsibility.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General and the Harlingen Police Department were also alerted to the death.
The US saw a huge surge of migrants arriving from across the southern border as Title 42 – a policy that made it easier to expel migrants – ended last week.
Court records indicate that the number of migrants in custody were slightly more than 22,000 as of Sunday, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The number of migrants entering the country have dropped since the end of Title 42, according to the newspaper.
Facilities were left completely overwhelmed last week by the huge influx of arriving migrants.