An 8-year-old girl died while in U.S. Border Patrol custody in Texas after experiencing a "medical emergency" on Wednesday (May 17), authorities confirmed.
The girl and her family were being held at a facility in Harlingen, which is located near the U.S.-Mexico border, at the time of her death, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials confirmed in a statement obtained by NBC News. No additional details, including the child's identity, were released as of Thursday (May 18) morning.
"Emergency Medical Services were called to the station and transported her to the local hospital where she was pronounced dead," the statement said, adding that the Office of Professional Responsibility would launch an investigation into the child's death, as is standard protocol in all cases.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it has communicated with the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General and the Harlingen Police Department in relation to the 8-year-old's death. The report comes days after a 17-year-old unaccompanied migrant from Honduras, identified by Honduran officials as Ángel Eduardo Maradiaga Espinoza, was pronounced dead at a facility in Florida.
An investigation into Espinoza's death led to calls for a full investigation and criminal investigation should any wrongdoing be found.
Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security assigned hundreds of asylum officers to the U.S.-Mexico border amid a recent surge in humanitarian needs as tens of thousands of migrants are reported to be in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced via ABC News.
"Short-term solutions" are needed to address the "decades-old problem" of a "broken immigration system," Mayorkas said.
"We are clear-eyed about the challenges we are likely to face in the days and weeks ahead. ... We are taking this approach within the constraints of a broken immigration system that Congress has not fixed for more than two decades and without the resources we need: personnel, facilities, transportation and others that we have requested of Congress and that we were not given," he added.
A reported 26,354 people were in CBP custody as of May 10, Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz announced at the time via ABC News. The sudden surge came as Title 42, a policy setup during the COVID-19 pandemic to allow the U.S. to expel migrants from the border, was set to expire on May 11.