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Guatemalan boy, 8, dies in US custody

By Greg Norman | Fox News

An 8-year-old boy from Guatemala died Tuesday while in U.S. custody, immigration officials announced, becoming the second child to die in such circumstances over the past month.

In a statement, Customs and Border Protection said the boy died shortly after midnight at the Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The cause of death is unknown; he had received treatment at the hospital starting on Christmas Eve.

Immigration officials say an agent first “noticed that the child showed signs of potential illness” Monday and brought the boy to the medical center, where he was diagnosed with a “common cold.”

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Prior to leaving the hospital though, staff found a fever. They discharged the boy in the mid-afternoon with prescriptions for amoxicillin and Ibuprofen.

But later in the evening, the child “exhibited nausea and vomiting and was transferred back” to the facility for evaluation and treatment, CBP said, before dying around midnight.

Officials say the death is under investigation.
The Guatemalan government has been notified and is working with the boy’s father and family there.

“DHS has continued to see a dramatic increase in unaccompanied children and family units arriving at our borders illegally or without authorization,” CBP added in a statement. “Consistent with existing law, these individuals are held at federal facilities pending their removal or release into the interior of the United States with a notice to appear at a court hearing.”

The body of a 7-year-old girl who died while in U.S. Border Patrol custody earlier this month – also from Guatemala -- was flown to her home country Sunday ahead of burial in her home village.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/border-pa...ies-in-custody