Four Migrants Found Dead in Rio Grande
Four people including an infant girl were recently found dead in the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass
An infant girl was among four dead migrants who drowned in the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas over the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Texas Department of Public Safety (TxDPS) spokesperson, Lt. Chris Olivarez reported via Twitter on July 3rd that a mother and infant were found dead on July 1st. Two others, one male and one female, were found on July 2 and 3rd respectively.
“A female adult & female infant were unresponsive,” said Lt. Olivarez on Twitter. “TMU (Tactical Marine Unit) Operators immediately performed chest compressions on the two. Medical staff arrived on the scene & transported both to Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center, where both were pronounced deceased. The 2 survivors were turned over to US Border Patrol.”
The identities of the migrants are still unknown since they were not carrying any identification according to multiple reports. In September, nine migrants drowned while attempting to cross the notoriously dangerous river at the same crossing point. Exacerbating the problem are the barricades put in place by Texas Governor Greg Abbott in the Rio Grande including floating obstacles along with concertina wire.
As Republicans and conservative voters spread misinformation about President Joe Biden’s “open border,” immigrant rights advocates point out that the deaths wouldn’t have happened if the border was in fact open the way they describe. Meanwhile, President Biden’s asylum policies are leaving many asylum-seekers stranded in Mexico as conditions worsen.
According to a Reuters report, there is a sharp drop in people passing their U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) screenings. That number is down to 46% for single adults from an average of 83% from 2014 to 2019. The information is based on government data contained in a court filing and accessed by the Reuters team.
The report also showed a sharp increase in time spent in U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody and roughly 50,000 people were deported since the start of President Biden’s policy which was adopted on May 11. The policy requires asylum-seekers to make appointments before coming to the US-Mexico border via the inconsistent and problematic government-run app called “CBP One”.
The problems are so expansive that CBP at one point stopped scheduling appointments at the Laredo, Texas crossing due to extortion attempts by a notoriously dangerous migrant-trafficking gang in Nuevo Laredo. Asylum-seekers there have reported that Mexican officials within the city threatened to hold them and make them miss their appointments unless migrants paid them.
Asylum appointments from Nuevo Laredo via the app have since resumed.
I reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and have received no response as of this publication.
Arturo is a writer, journalist, and publisher of The Antagonist Magazine and a regular contributor at Latino Rebels and Unicorn Riot. You can find him on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.