Migrant Child Dies In U.S. Custody At Florida Shelter

SAFETY HARBOR, FL — A 17-year-old boy from Honduras died Wednesday while he was in U.S. government custody at a Florida shelter for unaccompanied migrant children, according to officials and reports.

The teen — identified as Ángel Eduardo Maradiaga Espinoza by Enrique Reina, the Honduran secretary of foreign affairs — was staying at a shelter in Safety Harbor, according to Reina. In a statement on social media, Reina called for an "exhaustive investigation" into his death.

Espinoza died after he was taken to Mease Countryside Hospital, Bill Pellan, director of investigations for the District Six Medical Examiner Office, told the Tampa Bay Times. His cause of death remains unclear.

Pinellas County also authorities confirmed the boy's death to the Times but did not release further details.

The shelter where Espinoza was housed is operated by the Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services nonprofit and is funded by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, according to the Times.

Espinoza's death comes as the United States entered a new immigration enforcement era, ending a three-year-old asylum restriction known as Title 42 and enacting a set of strict new rules that the Biden administration hopes will stabilize the U.S.-Mexico border and push migrants to apply for protections where they are, skipping the dangerous journey north.

Under the new rules, migrants are now essentially barred from seeking asylum in the United States if they first didn't seek protection in the countries they traveled through or applied online.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services acknowledged Espinoza's death in a statement provided to CBS News but provided few details about the circumstances.

"(The department) is deeply saddened by this tragic loss and our heart goes out to the family, with whom we are in touch," the agency said in the statement.

The statement also noted the Office of Refugee Resettlement's Division of Health for Unaccompanied Children is "reviewing all clinical details of this case, including all inpatient health care records," CBS News reported.

A spokesperson from the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately return Patch's request for comment.

The boy's death is the first of a migrant child in U.S. custody to be reported in years, according to CBS News. In an eight-month span in 2018 and 2019, six children died in U.S. custody or shortly after being released.