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An 8-year-old girl has tragically died while in the custody of the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in Harlingen, Texas. The CBP announced in a news release that the girl and her family were at their detention facility when she experienced a medical emergency. Emergency Medical Services were called, but the girl was pronounced dead at the local hospital. The CBP did not disclose the girl's nationality or provide further details about the circumstances surrounding her death.
This incident follows the recent death of a 17-year-old unaccompanied Honduran refugee in a Florida shelter while under the care of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The teenager was in the custody of the HHS's Office of Refugee Resettlement at the time of his passing.
Reports indicate that since 2018, at least eight unaccompanied refugee children have died in US government detention camps. These tragic incidents raise concerns about the treatment of migrant children and the lack of meaningful legal actions to hold US officials accountable for their actions.
The death of the young girl occurred shortly after the lifting of Title 42, the pandemic-era border restrictions, which had prevented migrants from seeking asylum at the border. The lifting of these restrictions led to a significant increase in the number of asylum seekers crossing into the Rio Grande Valley. While the number of migrants encountered at the border has decreased since the lifting of Title 42, many remain in US custody.
Title 42 has been criticized by rights watchdogs as an unlawful and xenophobic policy that used public health as a pretext to deny vulnerable migrants the opportunity to seek asylum in the US. President Joe Biden has replaced this policy with new measures that facilitate the deportation of asylum seekers who cross the border illegally or fail to seek protection in another country before reaching the US.
The treatment of immigrants, particularly the arrival of asylum seekers at the southern border, has been a contentious issue for decades. Former President Donald Trump faced criticism for his "inhumane" immigration policies, and President Biden's approach has drawn similar scrutiny.