Migrant boy dies after falling ill in Arizona desert

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) — A migrant boy died after falling ill on June 15 in the Arizona desert.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said a migrant woman in distress called 911 that evening in the border county of Santa Cruz, which is home to Nogales.

After deputies patched her 911 call to the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, the woman told agents her 9-year-old son was experiencing seizures.

The woman reportedly told CBP officials she had crossed the border illegally with her two sons and an unknown man.

Agents requested the assistance of a National Air Guard unit, which spotted the family about 20 minutes later, and a Tuba Fire Department emergency crew arrived shortly after and conducted a quick trauma assessment of the child.

CBP said the paramedic held the child while a border agent on an ATV took them to the ambulance.

At approximately 10:54 p.m., emergency crews arrived with the child at Northwest Medical Center in Sahuarita, Arizona. The following day, they flew him to Banner Desert Medical Center in Mesa, Arizona, where staff diagnosed the child with multi-organ failure and placed him on life support. He was pronounced dead at 8:44 p.m. on June 17.

CBP said that while at the Tucson medical center and before the boy died, border agents completed the administrative migrant processing of the woman and her children and notified her and the medical staff that they were no longer in Border Patrol custody.

Special agents with CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility interviewed the woman who said her son did not have existing medical issues and believed the heat and lack of water contributed to his illness.

She said they crossed the border into rugged terrain at 2:30 a.m. on June 15.

This incident is under review by CBP’s OPR. The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General also was notified.

An 8-year-old girl born in Panama died on May 17 in a Border Patrol station in Harlingen, Texas, more than a week after her family of five surrendered to border agents after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico.

Anadith Tanay Reyes Alvarez tested positive for influenza while in custody. Her mother said the girl had a history of heart problems and sickle cell anemia. CBP said contracted medical care providers did not send her girl for hospitalized emergency care days before her death.

On May 10, a 17-year-old boy from Honduras died in U.S. immigration custody in Florida, according to U.S., Honduran, and local officials.

Enrique Reina, the Honduran Secretary of Exterior Relations and International Cooperation, tweeted days after that 17-year-old Ángel Eduardo Maradiaga Espinoza died in a facility in Safety Harbor.

The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office in Florida also confirmed the death of a 17-year-old boy at the Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services (JFCS) shelter, but they did not identify the minor.

The boy’s mother told the Associated Press that her son had epilepsy but showed no signs of being seriously ill before he left for the United States.