ALAMOGORDO, NM – For the second time this month, a young child died in the custody of the United States government, detained after he attempted to cross the southern border into the U.S. from Mexico with family, authorities announced Tuesday.
The Guatemalan boy, who has not been named, passed away shortly after midnight on Christmas Day after displaying “signs of potential illness” the day before, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement.
CBP that he and his father were taken to a hospital in New Mexico’s Alamogordo, where the boy was diagnosed with a cold and a fever, given prescriptions for amoxicillin and ibuprofen, and released on Monday afternoon.
The boy returned to the hospital on Monday evening after he began vomiting and died at the facility just hours later, however, the agency said the cause of death was not yet determined.
It follows the death of Jackeline Caal, also a Guatemala native, who was also detained following a failed border crossing, dying later of dehydration and shock, reported The Washington Post.
The Caals were part of a so-called “caravan” of migrants numbering in the thousands fleeing persecution in the Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
The migrants largely hope to find residence in the United States. Washington has tried to deter the mass migrants by warning that anyone entering illegally will face arrest and legal prosecution that would likely lead to deportation.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s approach to tackling immigration is based most prominently on building a physical wall along the border with Mexico to stymy immigrants and the drug trade.
(c)Breaking911 – Eli Ridder
