U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced Monday the death of a 16-year-old boy from Guatemala who had just days earlier crossed the southern border illegally as a so-designated “unaccompanied minor.” While only minimal details were released, the young man was likely headed to relatives waiting for him somewhere in the United States.
CBP oversees the Border Patrol which, as required, had custody of the boy when he was noticed to be sick with respiratory symptoms and fever. He was seen by a nurse practitioner who diagnosed him with the flu and prescribed an anti-viral medication and fever control. The patient was then returned to a Border Patrol detention facility where he was checked by agents at “regular intervals.” Early in the morning of May 20, Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez was found unresponsive in his holding unit.