A caravan of 31 immigrant parents and children were apprehended by border agents along the north side of the Rio Grande River near Hidalgo, Texas, Thursday after having just illegally crossed into the U.S. from Reynosa, Mexico.
Border Patrol agents from the Rio Grande Valley Sector’s Weslaco Station found the large group on the riverbank after they reportedly crossed on rafts.
Roderick Kise, CBP public affairs officer based in RGV Sector told the Washington Examiner immigrants often “pay the ferryman” to bring children too small to wade across the river from the southern to northern riverbank of the Rio Grande.
Upon initial inspection at the river, all 31 people stated they were from the Central American countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The group was taken to Centralized Processing Center in McAllen, Texas, where agents will verify family unit relationships and process them over the next 72 hours.
[Also read: 301 migrants who arrived at border over past seven months not family units: DHS]
During a tour of the Hidalgo-Mission-McAllen border this week, Border Patrol agents told the Washington Examiner that smugglers spend on average 20 to 30 days leading a handful of migrants to the U.S. then often abandon them on the south side of the river, leaving them to cross on their own.
In Mexico, the Rio Grande River is referred to as “Río Bravo del Norte,” which means “Turbid River of the North.”
Border Patrol agents have rescued more than 2,600 illegal immigrants this fiscal year, a CBP spokesman told the Examiner. However, RGV agents find on average one drowned victim in the river each week.
[Also read: ABC News crew runs into human smuggler on camera at US-Mexico border]
