An 8-year-old Guatemalan boy died Christmas morning in the custody of US Customs and Border Protection.

He is the second Guatemalan child to die in CBP custody this month.

Rep. Joaquin Castro, chairman-elect of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, identified the child in a statement as Felipe Alonzo-Gomez.

The boy, who was detained with his father, died shortly after midnight at Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center in Alamogordo, New Mexico, about 90 miles north of the border crossing in El Paso, Texas.

The boy was taken to the hospital Monday after a border agent noticed signs of illness, and the medical staff first diagnosed him with a common cold and later detected a fever.

"The child was held for an additional 90 minutes for observation and then released from the hospital mid-afternoon on December 24 with prescriptions for amoxicillin and Ibuprofen," CBP said in a news release.

Amoxicillin is a commonly prescribed antibiotic.

On Monday evening, the boy began vomiting and was taken back to the hospital for evaluation. He died hours later, the CBP said.

The official cause of death is unknown. CBP is conducting a review and will release more details as they become available, it said.

Source: cnn.com

BDST: 1100 HRS, DEC 26, 2018
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