A 17-year-old migrant boy from Honduras who came to the United States without parents or guardians has died in government custody in Florida, officials said Friday, in what is believed to be the first such death in years.
Enrique Reina, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Honduras, identified the boy as Angel Edward Maradiaga Espinoza and called by a “thorough investigation” into his death. Reina said the boy was being held at a shelter used to house unaccompanied children in Safety Harbor, Fla., a small town west of Tampa.
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) acknowledged the death in a statement, but provided few details about the circumstances.
“[The department] is deeply saddened by this tragic loss and our hearts go out to the family, with whom we are in contact,” the agency said.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which is a division of HHS, is responsible for housing and caring for migrant children who arrive at the US-Mexico border without legal guardians. Border officials are required by federal law to transfer unaccompanied minors to ORR within 72 hours. The refugee office houses unaccompanied children in shelters and other facilities until they turn 18 or are claimed by a sponsor in the US
The HHS statement noted that ORR’s Division of Unaccompanied Children’s Health is “reviewing all clinical details of this case, including all inpatient medical care records,” and said that A medical examiner is conducting an inquest into the child’s death. The agency noted that children in ORR custody “have access to medical care, legal services, translation services, and mental and behavioral health counselors and can connect with family through a phone call in a private area such as at least twice a week.”
As of Wednesday, 8,681 unaccompanied children were in HHS care, government figures show, and unaccompanied children spend a average of 29 days in ORR custody. In the last fiscal year, the majority of minors referred to the ORR—approximately 72%—were over 14, and nearly 64% were boys. Unaccompanied children are usually matched with a sponsor, usually a family member, and released.
About 29 percent of children in ORR custody in fiscal year 2022 came from Honduras, like Espinoza. Almost half came from Guatemala and about 13% came from El Salvador.
News of Espinoza’s death comes as the United States implements strict new asylum and deportation policies aimed at deterring illegal migration after the expiration of title 42, a pandemic-related restriction that expired at midnight Thursday. Title 42 allowed border officials to quickly deport hundreds of thousands of migrants without hearing their asylum claims, a policy that began in March 2020 under President Donald Trump.
Unaccompanied children were subject to removal under Title 42 until November 2020, when a federal judge put an end to the practice. Their waiver prompted thousands of children who had previously been deported with their families to leave their loved ones in Mexico and try to seek asylum for themselves, a phenomenon that became known as “self separationGovernment figures showed that more than 12,000 migrant children returned to US border custody as unaccompanied minors after being deported to Mexico in the year following the judge’s ruling.
Border Patrol officials encountered more than 152,000 unaccompanied minors in fiscal year 2022 and have encountered more than 70,000 since Oct. 1, 2022, according to government data.
During an eight-month period in 2018 and 2019, six children died in US custody or shortly after being released, including one 10 year old girl who died while in charge of the ORR. His death was the first of a child in U.S. custody since 2010, officials said at the time.
Margaret Brennan contributed to the report.
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