8-Year-Old Girl Dies In US Border Patrol Custody

After a medical emergency, an eight-year-old girl died while being held by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the organization reports.

When the girl became ill, the girl and her family were detained in a border patrol station in Harlingen, Texas, according to the CBP.

She was sent to a nearby hospital, according to the agency, where doctors on Wednesday declared her dead.

It declared that it will look into the event and informed the Department of Homeland Security.

The girl was recognized as Anadith Tanay Reyes Alvarez, a Panamanian native, by José Leonardo Navas, the Honduran consul in McAllen, Texas, a border town, BBC reported.

According to Navas, who spoke to the Associated Press, she was born with cardiac issues and was visiting the U.S. with her parents, who are from Honduras, and her two older siblings. According to reports, her father told the consul that she underwent surgery in Panama three years prior.

Her death looks to be the first in custody of the U.S. Border Patrol in several years.

However, it is the second youngster from Latin America to pass away while in the care of the U.S. government in as many weeks.

A 17-year-old Honduran teenager who entered the U.S. alone last week died in a Florida federal refuge facility.

The authorities withheld any details on the girl's medical emergency and any further factors that may have contributed to her demise. It said it would share more details as they became available.

In a statement, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus said it has asked Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to brief lawmakers on the incident.

"We have a fundamental duty to protect migrants in our case and custody, any death is unacceptable," the statement said. "We cannot go back to 2019."

It occurs soon after the expiration of Title 42, a border regulation from the Covid-19 era that permitted the U.S. to swiftly deport immigrants who entered the country illegally.

In the wake of its expiration, border officials had been preparing for a major increase in migrant crossings, but preliminary data reveals U.S. officials witnessed a considerably lower uptick than anticipated.