Autopsy: Migrant child died of infection in Border Patrol custody

April 5 (UPI) -- The cause of death of an 8-year-old boy who died Christmas Eve in U.S. Border Patrol custody was a bacterial infection, an autopsy report showed.

Guatemalan Felipe Gomez Alonzo died from "complications of influenza B infection," said the report published Wednesday by the New Mexico Office of the Medical Examiner. "The influenza virus damaged his lungs, allowing a generalized bacterial infection."

The autopsy report said his lungs were heavy with blood.

"There was a large amount of bleeding within the alveoli," the report read. "Multiple bacteria were also visible by microscopic examination of the upper airways and lungs."

The autopsy report comes a week after it was revealed that 7-year-old Guatemalan Jakelin Amei Rosmery Caal Maquin had also died of a bacterial infection while in Border Patrol custody this past December.

News of the cause of deaths comes as Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has been asking Congress for more resources and powers to deal with a "dire situation" at the U.S.-Mexico border due to a surge in migrants attempting to enter the country.

Nielsen visited El Paso, Texas, Wednesday during a tour of the border to assess the situation, saying "Our system and facilities were never structured to withstand the current influx of immigrants."

On April 1, she deployed more than 750 patrol officers to the border due to a recent influx in migrants.

Gomez Alonso died while in Border Patrol custody with his father after having shown signs of illness.

Both Gomez Alonso and his father were taken to the Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center in Alamogordo, N.M., where the 8-year-old was diagnosed with a cold and a fever. Before returning to the migrant detention center, he was given a prescription for amoxicillin and ibuprofen.

Shortly before midnight on Christmas Eve, Gomez Alonso began vomiting. He died shortly after.

Caal Maquin and her father were detained along with 163 other Guatemalan migrants after illegally crossing the U.S. border at Antelope Wells, N.M.

While in U.S. custody she fell ill and began vomiting, her father told media after her death.

The migrants were then transported by bus to a border station in Lordsburg, N.M., and when they arrived at the destination, Caal Maquin was not breathing.

She was airlifted to an El Paso hospital where she died Dec. 8 of cardiac arrest.

Her autopsy report discovered streptococcus bacteria in her lungs, adrenal gland, liver and spleen.

Caal Maquin was the first of four migrants to die in Border Patrol custody since December.

Following Gomez Alonzo's death, Customs and Border Patrol said it would perform medical checks on every child in detention under the age of 10. The agency also said it's reviewing how it holds immigrants to relieve crowding in its El Paso centers.

Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said in December that more resources were needed to help the children and said the border posts were built decades ago to house adult males, not children or families. More migrant children than ever are entering the country.

Danielle Haynes contributed to this report.