U.S. Customs and Border Protection ordered medical checks on every child in its custody Wednesday after an 8-year-old boy from Guatemala died, the second death of a child immigrant under the agency's watch this month, the AP reports.
The big picture: CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said Wednesday that the agency has more than 1,500 emergency medical technicians on hand, and that officers are taking dozens of sick immigrant children to hospitals every day. “This is an extraordinarily rare occurrence,” McAleenan told CBS. "It’s been more than a decade since we’ve had a child pass away anywhere in a CBP process, so this is just devastating for us.” The number of children in the agency's care is unknown, a CPB spokesperson said Tuesday, but the agency is reaching out to other government agencies to help with medical assistance.
