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Border patrol agents, along with local fire and police agencies,
were searching for possible additional victims a day after the
Thursday incident, said Customs and Border Protection spokesman
Rick Pauza.
A total of 53 migrants were taken into custody by U.S. border
patrol agents on Thursday, including the 37 rescued from the
river, Pauza said. Mexican government authorities arrested 39
people.
The Rio Grande swelled in recent days due to unusually heavy
rains that flooded the streets of Piedras Negras, Mexico.
Other groups of migrants also struggled on Thursday evening to
cross the fierce currents of the river between Piedras Negras
and Eagle Pass.
Several men from Venezuela were successful after at least an
hour attempting to ford the river’s fast waters, shirtless, with
few belongings and using a rope to help one another, yelling
“Help! Help!“ once close to the U.S. shore.
One man from the group clung to a concrete column under the
international bridge for minutes after his friends made it to
shore, afraid to let go as the water rushed past until his
companions returned to help.
Texas has been at the center of a fierce national debate over
illegal immigration that will likely play a role in the November
mid-term elections.
Federal and local officials are scrambling to locate close to a
dozen unaccompanied migrant children, after Houston police
raised concerns about their whereabouts, Reuters reported on
Friday.
The deaths and missing children underscore the challenges for
President Joe Biden's administration as it faces a record number
of unaccompanied kids arriving at the southwest border.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Additional reporting by Daina Beth
Solomon in Mexico City; Editing by William Mallard & Simon
Cameron-Moore)
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