A 7-year-old girl from Guatemala died of dehydration and shock after she was taken into Border Patrol custody last week for crossing from Mexico into the United States illegally with her father and other migrants along a New Mexico desert, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Thursday.

The child’s death is likely to intensify scrutiny of detention conditions at Border Patrol stations and CBP facilities that are increasingly overwhelmed by large numbers of families seeking asylum in the United States.

According to CBP records, the girl and her father were taken into custody about 10 p.m. Dec. 6 south of Lordsburg, New Mexico, as part of a group who turned themselves in.

More than eight hours later, the child began having seizures, CBP records show. Emergency responders measured her body temperature at 105.7 degrees, and according to CBP, she “reportedly had not eaten or consumed water for several days.”

After a helicopter flight to Providence Hospital in El Paso, Texas, the child went into cardiac arrest and “was revived,” the agency said. “However, the child did not recover and died at the hospital less than 24 hours after being transported,” CBP said.

The agency did not release the name of the girl or her father, but the father remains in El Paso, according to CBP. The agency is investigating the incident, it said.

Advertisement

Food and water are typically provided to migrants in Border Patrol custody, and it wasn’t immediately clear Thursday if the girl received provisions and a medical exam before the onset of seizures.

“Our sincerest condolences go out to the family of the child,” CBP spokesman Andrew Meehan said in a statement.

Arrests of migrants traveling as family groups have skyrocketed this year, and Homeland Security officials say court rulings that limit their ability to keep families in detention have produced a “catch and release” system that encourages migrants to bring children.

In November, Border Patrol agents apprehended a record 25,172 “family unit members” on the Southwest border.

Comments are not available on this story.