Three-year-old drowns while crossing the Rio Grande with family in large migrant caravan: Toddler was swept away by strong current
Three-year-old drowns while crossing the Rio Grande with family in large migrant caravan: toddler was swept away by strong current
- A migrant child drowned in the Rio Grande as their family tried to reach Eagle Pass, Texas
- The boy was swept away by a current and found by Texas Department of Public Safety officers and taken to a medical facility, where he was confirmed dead.
- Nearly 4,000 migrants have crossed from Mexico in recent days and are camping under a bridge on the Texas border.
A three-year-old boy drowned after being swept away by a current in the Rio Grande as their family tried to enter the United States.
The boy’s body was found by Texas Department of Public Safety officers and rushed to a nearby hospital on Wednesday.
State authorities said the child was pronounced dead at the medical facility.
The victim’s nationality had not yet been announced on Thursday.
âYet another senseless tragedy due to the federal government’s failure to deter unlawful border crossings between ports of entry and lack of preventative measures,â Chris Olivares, spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety, wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Migrants seeking asylum from the United States will cross from Mexico via the Rio Grande on September 15. A three-year-old boy was traveling with his family on Wednesday when a current separated him from his loved ones and carried him downstream. He was taken to a local hospital near Eagle Pass, Texas and was pronounced dead
DailyMail.com has contacted U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Texas Department of Public Safety for comment.
The boy was among about 4,000 asylum-seeking migrants who crossed from Mexico and reached the Rio Grande coast at Eagle Pass on Wednesday and were forced to camp under the Camino Real International Bridge, also known as the International Bridge II. Border agents expected the arrival of another 3,000 migrants.
The massive gathering under the bridge, which connects Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras, Coahuila, led to Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas signing an emergency declaration.
Salinas ruled out using the border city’s budget to shelter the migrants.
âThe City of Eagle Pass is committed to the safety and well-being of our local citizens,â Salinas said. âThe emergency declaration gives us the opportunity to apply for funding to provide the additional services caused by the influx of undocumented immigrants.â
The drowning of the three-year-old boy comes after RamĂłn, a ten-year-old boy from Honduras, also drowned on September 13.
The child was crossing the Rio Grande with his mother, Yesenia PĂ©rez, 26, when a current separated them.
Authorities recovered their bodies and rushed them to a hospital, where RamĂłn was confirmed dead. PĂ©rez, who remained hospitalized due to injuries, fled Honduras with her son to escape her husband, who allegedly abused her.
A migrant girl is helped to climb over a barbed wire fence so she can cross into the United States south of Eagle Pass, Texas.
At least 686 migrants have died or disappeared while trying to cross the land border between the United States and Mexico in 2022, according to the United Nations International Organization for Migration.
The latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) report shows that border agents reported 1,973,092 encounters with migrants for illegal entry at the southern border in fiscal year 2023, which runs from October 2022 to September 2023. August statistics are still out released.
By comparison, 2,378,944 interdiction encounters were reported in fiscal year 2022, an increase from the 1,734,686 encounters in the previous fiscal year. At least 458,088 bans in all of fiscal year 2021.
Mexico’s Refugee Assistance Commission said last week it expects to receive 150,000 asylum applications this year, surpassing the record 129,000 it encountered in 2021.
Through August, they already had 100,000 – 25% more than the same period in 2021. More than half of the requests were received by the agency on Mexico’s common border with Guatemala.