EAGLE PASS, Texas — A Texas National Guard soldier deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border under the governor’s border security operation is feared dead after going missing along the Rio Grande.
The soldier went missing on Friday during a mission-related incident near the river in Eagle Pass and as of this afternoon has not been found. An earlier report said the soldier had drowned, but those reports were “inaccurate,” according to a statement from the Texas Military Department.
Tom Schmerber, Maverick County sheriff, told the Washington Examiner that the incident happened at 8:30 a.m. local time and that investigators were still trying to recover the soldier’s body at 1 p.m.
“The National Guard soldiers saw a group of immigrants crossing, and one of them, a lady — it appeared that she was drowning,” Schmerber said. “The National Guardsman jumped into the river and tried to rescue, and he never came out. So they called us and said, ‘We’re still looking for him.'”
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“I just spoke with investigators. They found — when he jumped in, he left a walkie-talkie … and body armor. That’s all they’ve found so far,” Schmerber said, adding that the female was safe and in U.S. custody. “We’re still searching for the [soldier’s] body. That area where he drowned, it’s a very dangerous area, has a lot of currents.”
The state’s military department said it, along with the Border Patrol and Texas Department of Public Safety, was “working rapidly to find the soldier.”
A US Customs & Border Protection boat with soldiers on board is slowly making its way up and down this part of the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, searching for the missing National Guard soldier @TexasGuard @USBPChiefDRT @TxDPSSouth https://t.co/pk79TTtLPf pic.twitter.com/tLN681z98I
— Anna Giaritelli (@Anna_Giaritelli) April 22, 2022
Eagle Pass, a town of 29,000 residents located in south-central Texas, has become the epicenter of the border crisis and has seen 1,000 people being taken into custody daily as a result of illegally crossing the Rio Grande, which separates both countries.
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Gov. Greg Abbott did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s requests for comment.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
