The southern border that Joe Biden has yet to visit since taking office experienced yet again another tragic incident last week involving a large group of illegal immigrants attempting to cross the Rio Grande river into the United States.
Bodies of 13 migrants, including a pregnant woman, were recovered after they drowned crossing the rain-swollen Rio Grande at the US-Mexico border. This is not the first incident where migrants have drowned trying to get into the United States, and border patrol anticipates it won’t be the last.
On Thursday, US authorities apprehended 53 migrants, 37 of which were rescued from the water by US Customs and Border Patrol agents.
U.S. border agents recovered six bodies while their Mexican counterparts recovered seven between Thursday and Saturday. It is one of the deadliest drownings on the U.S.-Mexico border in recent history as the dangerous border-crossing attempts continue.
The area where the bodies were found had seen the river level rise by more than two feet in a single day last week, the Daily Mail reported.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said U.S. crews rescued 37 others from the river and detained 16 more, while Mexican officials took 39 migrants into custody.
CBP did not say what country or countries the migrants were from and did not provide any additional information on rescue and search operations.
According to the Daily Mail, the Border Patrol’s Del Rio sector, which includes Eagle Pass, is fast becoming the busiest corridor for illegal crossings. Agents stopped migrants nearly 50,000 times in the sector in July, with Rio Grande Valley a distant second at about 35,000. Eagle Pass is about 140 miles southwest of San Antonio.
Chief Patrol Agent Jason Owens of the Del Rio sector said that despite dangerous currents from recent rainfall, Border Patrol agents in the sector continue to encounter groups as large as 100 or 200 people trying to cross the Rio Grande each day.
‘In an effort to prevent further loss of life, we are asking everyone to please avoid crossing illegally,’ Owens said in a statement.
