Updated at 5 p.m. with comments from Rep. Beto O'Rourke and at 6 p.m. with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus vowing to investigate.

The White House and the Department of Homeland Security on Friday called the death of a 7-year-old Guatemalan girl while in Border Patrol custody "tragic" but firmly placed responsibility on the father's decision to cross the border illegally.

The girl, identified as Jakelin Amei Rosmery Caal Maquin, according to The Associated Press, had crossed into the U.S. with a large group of migrants in a remote stretch of New Mexico and died of dehydration and shock. Flown by helicopter to an El Paso hospital after becoming ill, she was initially revived but died early Dec. 8.

The death has caused an uproar, with immigrant advocates and Democrats demanding to know how it happened.

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-El Paso, demanded "a full investigation."

"It's a very serious thing for someone to die in [Customs and Border Protection] custody," he said.

Friday night, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus announced that it would send a delegation to the Border Patrol station in Lordsburg, N.M., where Jakelin fell ill, to dig into the circumstances.

"This is not who we are or who we want to be as a nation. We must understand what led to this child's death and how these stations are equipped to protect the health and safety of those seeking refuge at our borders," said Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, incoming chairman of the caucus.

At the White House hours earlier, Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley called it "a needless death" that was "100 percent preventable" — if the father hadn't set out across the desert with a young daughter, and if Congress had passed laws to "disincentivize" illegal border crossing.

"It's a horrific, tragic situation," he told reporters. "Obviously, our hearts go out to the family and to anyone who's suffered any type of danger and peril that they see so often when they make that trek up from the southern border."

Asked if the administration took responsibility for the death, he said: "Does the administration take responsibility for a parent taking a child on a trek through Mexico to get to this country? No."

Guatemalan consular officials said they had spoken with the father, who was deeply upset, according to the AP.

"It is important to show that, unfortunately, the places where migrants now enter are more dangerous and the distances they travel are greater," the officials said.

The Department of Homeland Security said the child had been "traveling with her father illegally" when they crossed the border near Antelope Wells, N.M., during a "days-long" journey through remote and barren terrain.

According to a timeline from the department, the 7-year-old and her father were part of a group of 163 travelers apprehended at 9:15 p.m. on Dec. 6.

DHS said the father said his daughter had not been able to consume water or food for days. But the agency said that an initial screening revealed no health issues and that the father said neither he nor his daughter was ill.

“At this time, they were offered water and food and had access to restrooms,” DHS said.

The Border Patrol sent a bus from the nearest station, in Lordsburg, N.M., 90 minutes away. The first busload of migrants left for Lordsburg just after midnight.

Still waiting to board a bus for Lordsburg, the father told Border Patrol agents about 5 a.m. that his child had become sick and was vomiting. Agents requested that an emergency medical technician meet the bus on the other end.

When the bus arrived at the Lordsburg station shortly before 6:30 a.m., DHS said, the father told agents that the child was not breathing. Border Patrol EMTs began medical care and requested an ambulance.

At that point, more than eight hours after she had been detained, the girl’s temperature was 105.9 degrees, according to DHS, and she was having seizures.

Agents revived the child twice. A helicopter arrived at 7:30 a.m. to take her to an El Paso hospital, where, after care in the emergency room and the pediatric intensive care unit, she died at 12:35 a.m. on Dec. 8. Her father was with her, DHS said.

“Her death is incredibly tragic,” DHS said in a statement posted on Facebook. "We are begging parents to not put themselves or their children at risk by attempting to enter illegally. Please, we are begging you, present yourselves and your children at a port of entry and seek to enter legally and safely."

DHS says every year hundreds of people who attempt to enter the U.S. illegally die, are injured in the attempt, or have to be rescued by the Border Patrol. In the past year, the Border Patrol rescued 4,311 people in distress.

"Traveling north illegally into the United States is extremely dangerous," the department said. "Drug cartels, human smugglers and the elements pose deadly risks."

Castro also called for a congressional investigation into the child's death. He noted that the Homeland Security Department's inspector general had found that the Trump administration's policy of limiting asylum seekers at ports of entry was prompting families to try to cross in more remote and dangerous parts of the border.

"This is a humanitarian crisis and we have a moral obligation to ensure these vulnerable families can safely seek asylum, which is legal under immigration and international law, at our borders," he said.

O'Rourke said he spoke Friday to Customs and Border Protection chief Kevin McAleenan, emphasizing lawmakers' dismay at learning about the death through news reports days later, rather than official channels.

Speaking on Facebook Live during a drive through Ciudad Juarez, he also blamed tight border security for putting migrants at risk.

"As we wall up and militarize the border, we're pushing people to ever more remote stretches, like Antelope Wells, of the U.S.-Mexico border, making it much more likely that they will suffer in the process or potentially die," he said. "We want to get to the bottom of what happened to Jakelin."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., called it "heartbreaking and unacceptable that a 7-year-old girl died of dehydration and shock last week in Customs and Border Protection custody. Reports indicate that she was not given water for the eight hours she was in custody before seizures started, even though she'd had nothing to drink for days."

Staff writer Todd J. Gillman reported from Washington and staff writer Dianne Solis reported from Dallas.

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