Guatemalan migrant, 2, dies in U.S. custody, in 4th such child death since December

A 2-year-old Guatemalan boy who crossed into the U.S. with his mother in early April died Tuesday night at a hospital in El Paso, The Washington Post reports, citing a Guatemalan consul and another person. The boy is the fourth minor known to have died after being apprehended at the U.S. border, all of them from Guatemala; two children died in December and a 16-year-old unaccompanied minor died April 30 after suffering a severe brain infection following more than a week in U.S. custody.

Tekandi Paniagua, the consul for Guatemala in Del Rio, Texas, told The Associated Press that the 2-year-old developed a high fever and had difficulty breathing after a few days in Customs and Border Protection custody, and he then spent about a month at a children's hospital, where he was diagnosed with pneumonia.

A CBP official familiar with the case told the Post that the boy and his mother were picked up April 3 near a border bridge in El Paso, the mother alerted officials that the child was sick on April 6, he was hospitalized, and on April 8, federal officials formally released the family from custody with a "notice to appear" in immigration court, leaving it unclear if the boy was technically in CBP custody when he died. An official told the Post that CBP would inform Congress of the death within 24 hours, as required for deaths in custody.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

A record number of migrant families, mostly from Central America, have been crossing the border and turning themselves in, requesting asylum. The numbers have overwhelmed U.S. border officials, and hundreds of migrants have been taken to the hospital, some with conditions they arrived with. Migrant advocates have questioned the Border Patrol's ability to care for the thousands of families in federal custody.