A 17-year-old migrant boy who entered the United States without parents or legal guardians died in government custody in Florida on Wednesday.
Angel Eduardo Maradiaga Espinoza of Honduras was found unconscious at Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services in Safety Harbor on May 10.
He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead after an hour of life-saving attempts at resuscitation.
Espinoza had been at the shelter since May 5 and entered the US without a parent or legal guardian. He was one of 8,681 unaccompanied migrant children in custody.
The death at the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) facility is only the second ever recorded and the first under President Joe Biden’s administration.
A 17-year-old migrant boy died in US custody in Florida on Wednesday. Pictured are migrants waiting to enter the United States in El Paso, Texas on Friday
Migrants who have already entered the United States will continue to be processed by border police at Gate 42 in El Paso, Texas on Friday
“The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is deeply saddened by this tragic loss and our condolences go out to the family with whom we are in contact,” the department said in a statement.
The Honduran government has called for a “full investigation” by border officials already dealing with migrant processing following the repeal of Title 42.
ORR is responsible for the accommodation and care of migrant children who cross the border without legal guardians.
Border agents are required by federal law to turn over unaccompanied minors to ORR within 72 hours.
The unaccompanied children are housed in emergency shelters or taken on by a sponsor in the USA until they are 18 years old
Agents detained 10,000 migrants every day for the past four days until the end of Title 42 at midnight on Thursday – putting border officials at an impossible disadvantage.
Of the 10,000, at least 3,000 were “getaways,” migrants who escaped without being cleared by border police.
Border officials said that represents a 441 percent increase over the past two years under the Biden administration.
Migrants spread their arms and legs to be searched before being taken into custody by border police on May 12
The day after Title 42 ends, migrants are processed in El Paso, Texas
The Florida teenager’s death comes just days after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed sweeping anti-immigration legislation into law.
The governor signed the bill into law hours before repealing pandemic-era Title 42, which facilitated expulsion of migrants at the border.
“We’re preparing for some turbulent times,” he said. “If you have a president who has turned a blind eye to the border … then it’s probably going to get a lot worse,” DeSantis said Wednesday.
The law provides $12 million for DeSantis’ migrant resettlement initiative, which drew national attention last year when the governor made his state pay to fly 50 mostly Venezuelan immigrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. He said he would highlight the migrant issue.
Also, stricter laws are being created in the state for undocumented immigrants, hospitals that accept Medicaid will be required to include a question about the patient’s citizenship status on admission forms, and required use of E-Verify, a federal database employers can use for verification tightens the employee’s employment entitlement.
This week his government selected three providers to use for the governor’s migrant resettlement program, suggesting additional flights or resettlements are likely.
One of the providers is the DeSantis airline office, which was also used for the flight to Martha’s Vineyard.
Meanwhile, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Monday called Florida’s new law “immoral” and “political.”
“Imagine Florida, which is full of migrants, taking repressive, inhumane measures against migrants in Florida because he wants to be a candidate,” López Obrador said.