The U.S. government says a 16-year-old teenager from Guatemala died Monday at a Border Patrol station in South Texas, becoming the fifth death of a migrant child since December.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that Border Patrol apprehended the teenager in South Texas' Rio Grande Valley on May 13. The agency says the teenager was found unresponsive Monday during a welfare check.
The agency did not say why the teenager had been detained for a week, but said he was "due for placement" in a facility for youth operated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
A 2-year-old child died last week after he and his mother were detained by the Border Patrol.
Tekandi Paniagua, the consul for Guatemala in Del Rio, Texas, said that boy had entered the United States with his mother at El Paso, Texas, in early April. Paniagua said the boy had a high fever and difficulty breathing, and authorities took him to a children's hospital where he was diagnosed with pneumonia.
With the Associated Press.