A refugee girl, 8, looses life in US custody days after teen migrant faced similar fate

An 8-year-old girl has died while in custody of the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in the southern state of Texas days after a 17-year-old boy died in Florida while in custody of the US Department of Health and Human Services.

The CBP declared in a news release Wednesday night that the girl and her family were in custody at its detention facility in Harlingen, Texas, when she “experienced a medical emergency,” without providing details.

“Emergency Medical Services were called to the station and transported her to the local hospital where she was pronounced dead,” added the news release, which did not disclose the girl's nationality or offer additional information about the circumstances of her death.

According to local news outlets, CBP officials have claimed that "the Office of Professional Responsibility" is investigating the little girl's death, "as is consistent with protocol." However, a spokesman for the Harlingen Police Department was cited as saying that he had no information about the child's death.

The child’s death comes just days after a 17-year-old unaccompanied Honduran refugee also lost his life in a Florida shelter while in custody of agents from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HSS).

Honduran teenage migrant dies in US government custody

A teenage migrant who arrived unaccompanied in the United States from Honduras has died in government custody.

The Honduran child was in detention of the HSS's Office of Refugee Resettlement when he died, according to a congressional notice cited in local press reports.

Also in March, a four-year-old girl from Honduras described as “medically fragile” died in HHS custody, but her death was not reported until last week.

Since 2018, at least eight unaccompanied refugee children have died at the migrant detention camps set up by US government agencies.

The latest death of a refugee child marks the first reported loss of life of a foreign-born minor while in custody of US Border Patrol since several children died in detention of American border agents during the previous Trump administration, which also forcefully separated many refugee children from their parents.

The cruel treatment of the migrant children is triggering major concerns by numerous rights groups, though it never led to meaningful legal actions to hold US officials accountable for the brutal policy.

This is while US authorities attempted to grossly manipulate the accidental fainting death of an Iranian woman at a police educational facility in September and turn it into a major human rights outcry. Furthermore, American officials attempted to instigate an armed insurgency across Iran aimed at generating instability and anarchy in the country.  

Uncertainty clouds US transition at Mexico border as new rules take effect

Uncertainty and confusion clouds US transition at Mexico border as the new rules unveiled by the Biden administration take effect following expiration of Trump-era Title 42 policy.

The migrant-girl's death comes less than a week after the lifting of Title 42, the pandemic-era border restrictions, which prevented migrants from claiming asylum at the border. In the weeks preceding the lifting, thousands of asylum seekers crossed from Mexico into the Rio Grande Valley.

Since Title 42 expired on May 11, officials have said the number of migrants encountered at the southern border has dropped -- but a high number of migrants remain in US custody. The average number of migrants taken into custody after crossing the border per day has dropped from more than 10,000 to about 4,400, according to the latest government data.

Title 42 has been described by rights watchdogs as an unlawful and xenophobic Trump-era policy that weaponized public health to prevent vulnerable migrants from seeking asylum in the US.

President Joe Biden has replaced the pandemic expulsion policy with new measures making it easier for authorities to deport asylum seekers who cross illegally or don’t seek protection in another nation they travel through before reaching the US border. Migrants who cross the border illegally will face a 5-year ban on applying for asylum in the future.

Immigration, and particularly the arrival of asylum seekers at the southern border, has been a contentious issue for decades. Former president Donald Trump was slammed for pursuing “inhumane” immigration policies and Biden has chosen to walk along the same route so far.

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