Officials on both sides of the US-Mexico border searched for more victims Saturday after at least nine migrants died while trying to cross the rain-swollen Rio Grande, a dangerous border-crossing attempt in an area where the river level had risen by more than 2 feet in a single day. US Customs and Border Protection and Mexican officials discovered the victims near Eagle Pass, Texas, on Thursday, following days of heavy rains. US officials recovered six bodies, while Mexican teams recovered three, according to a CBP statement. It is one of the deadliest drownings on the US-Mexico border in recent history, the AP reports.
The river, which was a little more than 3 feet deep at the start of the week, reached more than 5 feet on Thursday, and the water was flowing five times faster than usual, according to the National Weather Service. The CBP said US crews rescued 37 others from the river and detained 16 more, while Mexican officials took 39 migrants into custody. Officials did not say what country or countries the migrants were from, and local agencies in Texas that were involved have not responded to requests for information. Among the bodies recovered from the river by Mexican authorities were a man and a pregnant woman; their nationalities were unknown, said Francisco Contreras, a member of Civil Protection in the Mexican border state of Coahuila.
The Border Patrol's Del Rio sector, which includes Eagle Pass, is fast becoming the busiest corridor for illegal crossings, per the AP. 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. The area is not as strongly controlled by cartels and is perceived to be somewhat safer, said Stephanie Leutert, director of Central America and Mexico Policy Initiative at the University of Texas' Center for International Security and Law. "It might be a different price. It might be seen as safer. It might keep you out of cities that are notoriously dangerous," Leutert said.
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