A 7-year-old girl picked up with her father and dozens of other migrants along a remote stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border suffered seizures and spiked a high fever in immigration custody and later died, federal officials said.
An autopsy was scheduled to try to determine what killed the girl, who appeared to be dehydrated and suffering from shock and apparently had not had anything to eat or drink in days, they said.
The girl was found Dec. 6 near Lordsburg, New Mexico, by U.S. Border Patrol agents. She was in custody for about eight hours before she began having seizures, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials said. Emergency medical technicians discovered the girl’s fever was 105.7 degrees, and she was airlifted to an El Paso, Texas, hospital, where she later died.
The Guatemalan girl’s death comes as increasing numbers of children and families are making the dangerous trek north from Central America and as immigration officials are being increasingly criticized for their treatment of migrants who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border. A review of what happened in the girl’s case will take place, federal officials said.
“On behalf of the Department of Homeland Security, our sincerest condolences go out to the family of the child,” said a statement from Homeland Security, the parent department of the Border Patrol. “Border Patrol agents took every possible step to save the child’s life under the most trying of circumstances. As fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, we empathize with the loss of any child.”
The girl’s death raises questions about whether border agents knew she was ill and whether she was fed anything or given anything to drink during her time in custody. Officials said hundreds of people who have been overcome by the harsh desert and sweltering conditions are saved by Border Patrol every year.