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World|life|December 26, 2018 / 11:38 AM
8yo boy from Guatemala has died in US government custody

AKIPRESS.COM - An eight-year-old boy from Guatemala has died in US government custody, immigration authorities say.

A Texas congressman named the child as Felipe Alonzo-Gomez. It is the second time this month an immigrant child has died while being detained after crossing the US-Mexico border, BBC reports.

The previous instance saw seven-year-old Jakelin Caal, also from Guatemala, die just hours after being taken into custody.

Texan congressman Joaquin Castro called for a congressional investigation into the boy's death.

The boy died shortly after midnight on 25 December, US Customs and Border Protection said. In a statement, the agency said the eight-year-old had displayed "signs of potential illness" on Monday.

It reported that he and his father were taken to a hospital in Alamogordo, New Mexico, where the boy was diagnosed with a cold and a fever, given prescriptions for amoxicillin and ibuprofen, and released on Monday afternoon.

He returned to the hospital on Monday evening after he began vomiting and died there just hours later, the statement added.

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The agency said the cause of death had not been determined, and that the Department of Homeland Security's inspector-general and the Guatemalan government had been notified.

Thousands of migrants have travelled from Central America to the US border.

The migrants say they are fleeing persecution, poverty and violence in their home countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Many of them say their goal is to settle in the US despite warnings by US officials that anyone found entering the country illegally will face arrest, prosecution and deportation.

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