EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A government watchdog agency is looking into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of two migrants in New Mexico and South Texas last year.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Professional Responsibility last week issued a notice of review of the Aug. 14 death of a man from the Dominican Republic who apparently succumbed to the heat in Duval County, Texas.
At approximately 9 p.m., Border Patrol agents encountered a group of migrants walking on a ranch. One of the migrants told border agents he was too weak to walk, so they carried him until they were met by other agents in a marked Border Patrol vehicle.
According to a CBP statement of the incident, the migrant was placed in the vehicle and transported out of the ranch; at 9:30 p.m., the citizen of the Dominican Republic became unresponsive and agents performed CPR while calling for an ambulance.
At 9:54 p.m., almost an hour after the encounter, two border agents who are certified emergency medical technicians arrived. The agents continued assisting the man until an ambulance came at 10:31 p.m. and its crew assumed care of the patient and called in a helicopter to transport him to the hospital. A justice of the peace declared the migrant dead at 12:32 a.m. on Aug. 15.
The justice of the peace decided not to order an autopsy because he deemed the death accidental and caused by extreme dehydration.
OPR last week also said it was reviewing the July 7 death of a Mexican national in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.
A group of border agents patrolling the desert on all-terrain vehicles found a group of migrants at 5:45 p.m. about 5.6 miles northwest of the Santa Teresa port of entry and noticed a person in the group was unconscious.
The agents suspected he was suffering from heat-related illness and used water and ice to bring down his temperature while requesting an EMS transport, according to a CBP account of the incident.
At 6:15 p.m., a Doña Ana Fire Department crew arrived to assist, but there was no ambulance available to transport the patient, according to CBP. A Sunland Park Fire Department ambulance transported the patient to a hospital in El Paso at 6:36 p.m., with a Border Patrol EMT on board to assist in the care.
The hospital assumed care of the patient at 7:01 p.m. and doctors treated him for dehydration and heat stroke. The man remained hospitalized in critical condition through July 15, when he died.
The Border Patrol initially established a hospital watch for the man but later issued compassionate parole status “based on his need for advanced medical care,” CBP said in its statement.
The El Paso Office of the Medical Examiner did not conduct an autopsy, as the man’s family moved the body out of the county’s jurisdiction after death.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General has received notice regarding both reviews, CBP said.
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