Border Patrol in El Paso Ordered to Assess Health of Children in Custody After Death of Felipe Alonzo-Gomez

The Border Patrol’s El Paso sector, which was in charge of two children who died in custody this month, has been ordered to give all 700 children in its care medical checks, the AP reports. The sector includes parts of Texas and all of New Mexico. An 8-year-old boy from Guatemala died early Tuesday while in government custody. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) identified the boy as Felipe Alonzo-Gomez in a statement Tuesday. “The [Trump] administration’s policy of turning people away from legal ports of entry, otherwise known as metering, is putting families and children in great danger,” Castro, the chairman-elect of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said in the news release. “Many questions remain unanswered, including how many children have died in CBP custody.” According to a CBP statement, the boy was hospitalized after he “showed signs of potential illness.” He was being detained at a checkpoint between Alamogordo and Las Cruces, New Mexico, because of overcrowding at holding cells in El Paso, a CBP official told The Washington Post. He is the second child to die this month while in the custody of the U.S. government, after 7-year-old Jakelin Caal.