The Customs and Border Protection agency said Border Patrol agents would conduct medical checks on all illegal children following the deaths of two this month.
The first, a 7-year-old Guatemalan girl, likely died of septic shock after agents tried to save her life.
An 8-year-old Guatemalan boy, died shortly after midnight on Dec. 24 after agents rushed him to a medical center. The cause of death wasn’t clear. Multiple investigations were launched, per protocol.
American officials have stressed that the journey through Central America and Mexico is dangerous for anyone, especially children, and urged asylum-seekers to apply at official ports of entry versus trying to traverse remote desert areas.
Most migrants who seek asylum are ultimately rejected.
Kevin McAleenan, the commissioner of the agency, said in a statement after the second death that it will conduct “secondary medical checks upon all children in CBP care and custody,” with a focus on children under 10 years of age. He noted that the agency was “reviewing its policies with particular focus upon care and custody of children under 10.”
“This is a tragic loss. On behalf of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, our deepest sympathies go out to the family,” McAleenan added.
Due to the high number of people crossing illegally into the United States, the commissioner said that the agency was considering seeking support from other agencies including the Coast Guard and Department of Defense.
Because of loopholes in United States immigration laws, more than 100,000 migrants poured across the border in October and November alone.
“What we’re seeing with these flows of huge numbers of families with lots of children, young children, as well as unaccompanied minors, coming into Border Patrol custody after crossing the border unlawfully,” McAleenan told CBS on Tuesday. “Our stations are not built for that group that’s crossing today, they were built 30, 40 years ago for single adult males, and we need a different approach, we need help from Congress, we need to budget for medical care, and mental health care, for children in our facilities.”
He also noted that children’s deaths are extraordinarily rare.
“It’s been more than a decade since we’ve had a child pass away anywhere in the CBP process, so this is just devastating for us,” he said.
The Border Patrol includes more than 1,500 agents who are co-trained in medical care, he said. Agents take dozens of trips to hospitals every day, transporting children who display adverse symptoms, he added.
Congress Needs to Act
Besides funding for medical care, Congress should also act to change the laws so migrants aren’t incentivized to risk crossing the border in remote areas, McAleenan emphasized.
President Donald Trump said on Christmas that the government shutdown will continue until a budget proposal that includes funding for border security, including a border wall or fence, gets passed by Congress.
Many federal workers have spoken with him and conveyed their support for his stance, he told reporters at the White House.
“Stay out until you get the funding for the wall,” they told him, Trump said. “These federal workers want the wall. The only one that doesn’t want the wall are the Democrats because they don’t mind open borders.”
