Two migrants drowned in the Rio Grande River after border patrol agents foiled a smuggling attempt.
Last week, U.S. Border Patrol agents from the Laredo Sector stopped a vehicle that they said in a social media post was involved in a smuggling operation. “Several individuals” were apprehended at the time while “some” entered the river.
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“On March 16, 2021, Border Patrol Agents assigned to the Laredo Sector identified a vehicle suspected to be involved in alien smuggling activity,” a spokesperson with U.S. Customs and Border Protection told the Washington Examiner on Monday. “The vehicle drove to the area of Calton Road near the bank of the Rio Grande at which time several occupants of the vehicle fled into the river towards Mexico. Others were taken into custody at the vehicle. One individual who entered the river drowned and was recovered by Mexican authorities. A second was last seen floating away and has not been located. This incident is under review by CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility.”
Officials said two individuals drowned in the river trying to escape back to Mexico, while some made it across safely. Jesus Vargas, a local fisherman, saved a migrant using his fishing rod and captured some of the situation on camera.
“You don’t have life jackets, nothing? They’re drowning, these guys!” Vargas can be heard screaming to U.S. Border Patrol agents standing on the shoreline nearby in the video. The footage appears to show three people struggling to stay afloat in the river.
The incident is under investigation.
Vargas has contradicted the Border Patrol’s death toll, saying three people drowned.
The uptick in migrants encountered at the border has increased during the Biden administration, but Democrats note the data shows that the increase began during the end of the Trump administration, as Republicans have been quick to attack Biden’s immigration policies. There were more than 100,000 migrants encountered at the border last month, the highest since the summer of 2019. There were nearly 70,000 encounters reported each month between October 2019 and January 2020.
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Some migrants point to the change in White House policies, notably Biden’s reversal of Trump’s policy of returning unaccompanied minors to Mexico, as the impetus for their journeys to the border. One Brazilian migrant who recently entered the United States said he “definitely” wouldn’t have tried to cross the border during the Trump years.
