- The rescue of migrants by US Border Patrol agents highlights the dangers of illegal entry into the US.
- A recent rescue is the fifth in recent days as the Eagle Pass area continues to see more than 3,200 migrant crossings a week, feds say.
- In West Texas, El Paso declared a border crisis disaster on Thursday
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Two young children were among those rescued from the water of the river separating the United States and Mexico after their family tried unsuccessfully to sneak into the United States near Eagle Pass, Texas.
The rescue was captured in a thrilling video taken by a U.S. Border Patrol agent’s body camera.
Footage from this month shows several migrants struggling to stay afloat in the raging waters of the Rio Grande after the raft they were trying to use failed.
A boy and girl can be seen being pulled out of the water.
Other migrants were also saved, according to the agency that shared the video on social media on Thursday.
A toddler dripping with water and appearing to be wearing a diaper was among those rescued from the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas.
A specially trained Border Patrol water rescue team removed several illegal immigrants, according to images shared by the agency.
Two young children, a boy and a girl, can be seen sitting on the Border Patrol airboat after being taken out of the dangerous river.
“Crossing the border illegally is not worth the risk,” the Border Patrol warned in the email.
‘Eagle Pass officers were on patrol when a group of undocumented immigrants attempted to float across the Rio Grande on a raft.’
In this case, everyone was saved, but that is not usually the result on the Rio Grande, the American name for the river. In Mexico, the same waterway is known as ‘Río Bravo’ or fierce river.
There have been fatal incidents related to the river, including in January, when three migrants drowned in the river. In 2023, six migrants lost their lives in the channels of the Rio Grande, according to the El Paso Times.
Crossings across the Rio Grande have increased as migrants have arrived in the United States across the southern border. So have rescues: Federal officials conducted five rescues in total last week alone.
The Del Río sector continues to see large numbers of migrants crossing illegally, with 3,204 floods in the first week of March alone.
Elected officials in El Paso, Texas, have repeatedly stated that their priority is to prevent migrants from sleeping on the city’s streets, such as what was seen at the height of the migrant crisis in that city in May 2023.
Migrants arrive at a gate in the border fence after crossing from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, to El Paso, Texas, in the early hours of May 11.
That makes the Del Río sector the third busiest crossing point along the southern border, behind the Tucson and San Diego sectors.
Even in less traveled areas of the border, the migration crisis continues to take its toll on communities.
El Paso’s mayor issued a disaster declaration Thursday to allow local tax dollars to be used to fund nonprofit organizations that help immigrants.
While the Border Patrol in West Texas only serves about 1,400 migrants per day, the city has made it a priority to prevent migrants who do not have the funds to leave the border city from sleeping on the streets.
Texas’ sixth largest city was the epicenter of the border crisis from October 2022 to the summer of 2023, with the largest number of border crossings in the entire country.
During that time, the city declared a disaster to request resources from the state and federal government to handle the waves of migrants arriving there.
Since then, the local government has funded immigrant charities through a local ordinance.
However, the mandate failed to garner the necessary unanimous votes from all El Paso City Council members last week.
To continue funding migrant shelters, the mayor again issued a disaster declaration.