Comment The bodies of eight people have been pulled from the Rio Grande after dozens of migrants were swept into the river near Eagle Pass, Texas, in what appeared to be the deadliest mass drowning along the border in years, Customs and Border Protection officials said. of the US on Friday. CBP officials said the drownings occurred Thursday morning after a large group attempted to cross the Rio Grande, whose currents were running fast after several days of rain. Border Patrol agents and other CBP personnel rescued 37 people from the river who were part of a larger group of 53 taken into U.S. custody, according to a CBP statement. Authorities arrested an additional 39 migrants on the Mexican side of the river. During the rescue effort along the river, U.S. agents recovered the bodies of six drowning victims, and Mexican authorities found two more, according to CBP. The agency did not provide information on the victims’ nationalities or ages, but families with children had been crossing the area in recent months. The Border Patrol is working with search and rescue teams along the river “as searches continue for other possible victims,” the CBP statement said. A CBP official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the incident, said the death toll appears to be the worst mass drowning along the Rio Grande in years. CBP’s Del Rio sector has since 2020 gone from one of the sleepiest sections of the southern border to the busiest and most tense. Last month, U.S. agents made nearly 50,000 arrests in the Del Rio sector, the highest total along the entire border with Mexico, according to CBP data. The number of immigrants detained in Del Rio is on pace to exceed 400,000 during the current fiscal year ending Sept. 30, a tenfold increase from the same period in 2020. Migrants and asylum seekers from Venezuela and Cuba account for about half of the migrants passing through the Del Rio sector in recent months for reasons such as seeking job security and reuniting with relatives. More than 14,000 Venezuelans were detained in the sector in July, along with more than 10,000 Cubans, according to government figures. Tens of thousands of border guards from Haiti tried to reach the United States through the Del Rio region a year ago, forming a makeshift camp on the banks of the Rio Grande that created a humanitarian crisis for the Biden administration. However, the latest CBP records show that five Haitians were detained in Del Rio last month and nine in July, down from a high of 15,951 in September 2021. Dozens of migrants have died this year along the stretch of river near Eagle Pass after being swept away by the Rio Grande’s deceptively strong currents. In April, a Texas National Guard soldier died trying to save two people he thought were drowning. they turned out to be suspected drug smugglers. Body of National Guard soldier who drowned in Rio Grande recovered Agents in the Del Rio sector have recovered the bodies of more than 200 immigrants since Oct. 1, according to CBP.
