8-year-old girl dies in U.S. Border Patrol custody in Texas

An eight-year-old girl has died while in U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody in Harlingen, Texas, the agency announced on Wednesday.

In a statement from CBP, officials wrote that the unnamed minor “tragically passed away” at the Harlingen Station, near the U.S.-Mexico border, where she and her family were being held. The girl experienced an undisclosed “medical emergency” and was transported to hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.

The girl’s nationality is not publicly known.

Her death is currently being investigated by the Office of Professional Responsibility, as is standard protocol. The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General and the Harlingen Police Department were also notified of the incident.

The border patrol had 28,717 people in custody on May 10, the day before the expiration of Title 42, a pandemic-related asylum policy that allowed U.S. officials to limit immigration into the country. By Sunday, the number of people in custody had dropped by 23 per cent to 22,259, which The Associated Press reported is still unusually high.

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The average time in custody on Sunday was 77 hours — five hours more than the maximum allowed under agency policy.

In an attempt to eliminate the lengthy processing of those in CBP custody and free up more space in holding facilities, officials have been using quick releases, which do not provide migrants with notice to appear in an immigration court. Instead, migrants were instructed to report to an immigration office within 60 days. Quick releases have been the subject of debate in the U.S., and a federal judge in Florida ordered an end to the practice.

The station in Rio Grande Valley, where the girl and her family were held, is one of the most popular channels for illegal border crossings.

Her death comes only a week after a lone 17-year-old Honduran boy died in U.S. Health and Human Services Department custody in Safety Harbor, Fla.

— with filed from The Associated Press