A 32-year-old Salvadoran man died in New Mexico on Thursday while in the custody of Customs and Border Protection.
CBP said in a statement Thursday afternoon that it was saddened to report that the man from El Salvador was pronounced dead in the morning in Lordsburg, New Mexico.
The man, who was not identified in the statement, had been taken into custody around 9 p.m. Wednesday by El Paso Station Border Patrol agents and was being processed at the station in Lordsburg “when he fell into medical distress,” CBP said.
The agency said attempts to revive the man were unsuccessful, and it expressed condolences to his family.
CBP said it was “committed to the health, safety and humane treatment of those in our custody” and that the death was under review.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General, the government of El Salvador and members of Congress have been notified about the death, the statement said.
The man's death comes after the deaths of multiple migrants in immigration custody in recent months, including several children.
In late June, a 43-year-old Salvadoran man who had crossed into the United States with his daughter collapsed at a Border Patrol station in Texas and later died at a hospital after being held about a week in custody.
Earlier that month, a 33-year-old Salvadoran man suffered a seizure and died shortly after being taken into Border Patrol custody in Texas.
Just last week, a 44-year-old Mexican man became the seventh migrant to die in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement this fiscal year.
And between December and May, five Guatemalan children died after being taken into Border Patrol custody. Officials have said that prior to those deaths, it had been a decade since children died in the custody of the Border Patrol.
