Felipe died at the Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center in Alamogordo, New Mexico, after several days in Border Patrol custody with his father. A senior official said such deaths are “incredibly rare” and that, until this month, a child had not died in border custody for more than a decade. The deaths have shaken migrants and Border Patrol agents and ignited a fresh round of finger-pointing this week days before Democrats are poised to seize control of the House. Border Patrol officials said they are currently apprehending about 2,100 immigrants a day, and 1,400 to 1,500 are families. Border Patrol agents apprehended a record 25,172 families on the southwest border last month, including 11,489 in the Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol sector in southern Texas and 6,434 in the El Paso sector, which covers far western Texas and New Mexico.

Source: Washington Post December 26, 2018 19:06 UTC