US officials investigates migrant child's death after detention in Texas
Officials in the US state of Texas are investigating the reported death of a migrant child who had been held recently at a US detention center under "unsanitary conditions," amid outrage over the immigration policies of President Donald Trump's administration.
A spokesman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services said Friday the agency had opened an investigation into the allegations, which first surfaced earlier this month.
The probe began Thursday after representatives for the family gave the child's name to the authorities. The child's name remains confidential.
The mother's attorneys said they disclosed information about "a small child who tragically died” after being detained in “unsanitary conditions" by agents with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
"We currently are assessing the case and have no further comments," the Arnold & Porter law firm added in a statement.
The law firm only indicated that the child had been detained at a facility in Dilley, Texas, one of three ICE centers that house undocumented migrant families. Family centers house children only if they are part of a family unit.
ICE said it was cooperating with the investigation. Neither authorities nor attorneys provided details such as the child's gender, nationality or cause of death.
Controversy over the rumored death erupted this week after The Dallas Morning News first reported the allegations on August 1.
In July, the three detention centers of this type held a total of 1,437 detainees. The total number of immigrants detained in all ICE facilities in the United States amounted to 44,210 on July 16.
A US federal judge in June ordered the government to begin reuniting some 2,500 children that officials had separated from their parents after they crossed the US-Mexican border.
About 1,900 children have since been reconnected with their parents or a sponsor, but several hundred remain separated.
The families were separated as part of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy toward undocumented immigrants that began in early May.
In June, Trump ended the family separations after an intense domestic and international outcry.
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