Texas DPS Discovers 2 Abandoned Minors From Guatemala Along Rio Grande River

Honduran immigrants walk along the U.S. side of the Rio Grande and past an emptied-out immigrant camp after crossing over from Mexico to El Paso, Texas, on May 13, 2023. John Moore/Getty Images

Two abandoned unaccompanied minors from Guatemala were discovered by Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) officials near the Texas border on July 3.

The two minors, aged 8 and 11, told troopers they were abandoned by a female adult along the edge of the Rio Grande River at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, DPS spokesman Lt. Chris Olivarez wrote on Twitter.

According to the children, the unidentified female had left them at the edge of the river in Mexico and told them to cross it.

“Children who are smuggled/trafficked across the Texas-Mexico border continue to be exploited and left abandoned in dangerous situations,” Olivarez wrote, adding that Texas DPS has recovered more than 900 children during smuggling and trafficking-related events.

Olivarez did not state the time period during which the more than 900 children had been recovered.

Hours later, Olivarez wrote that the DPS’s Tactical Marine Unit had recovered four bodies—including an infant—from the Rio Grande within just 48 hours.

United States Border Patrol agents had requested assistance with a possible infant drowning on July 1, Olivarez said, prompting DPS and members of Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to deploy two air boats.

Officials observed “multiple bodies floating along the river,” Olivarez said. Four individuals were recovered from the river and given medical attention but two of the immigrants—an adult female and an infant female—were found to be unresponsive when medical staff performed chest compressions.

More Deceased Immigrants Found

They were later transported to Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center where they were pronounced dead.

The two other survivors were turned over to Border Patrol, according to Olivarez.

A day later, an unidentified deceased male was recovered from the river, and on July 3, another unknown deceased female was recovered from the river by officials.

“The identities of the deceased remain unknown since none possessed identifying documents,” Olivarez said.

The latest updates come after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced late in June that it will build more than 20 more miles of U.S.–Mexico border wall at Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector.

The building of the large section of the wall is consistent with DHS’s legal obligation to use the remaining fiscal year 2019 funds—approximately $190 million—for the “construction of primary pedestrian fencing, including levee pedestrian fencing, in the Rio Grande Valley.”

In total, Congress appropriated Customs and Border Protection $1.375 billion for such activities in the 2019 spending bill under former President Donald Trump’s administration.

Border Wall Construction

Trump, who is running for president again in the 2024 election, had vowed to expand the Mexico–United States barrier during his time in office in an effort to keep illegal immigrants out of the United States.

In contrast, President Joe Biden’s administration has urged Congress to take steps to prevent more of the wall from being built.

Instead, the Biden administration is using an array of various methods aimed at deterring illegal border crossings, including a regulation under which most immigrants are presumed ineligible for asylum if they passed through other nations without seeking protection elsewhere first, or if they failed to use legal pathways for U.S. entry.

In other cases, members of immigrant families who cross the U.S.–Mexico border illegally and seek asylum will be fitted with a GPS ankle monitor so that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials can continuously track them.

However, the Biden administration is also allowing up to 100,000 individuals from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador into the United States under a family reunification parole process and has also rolled out various other ways in which immigrants can obtain legal entry and work authorization, a move that has been condemned by Republican lawmakers and other experts.

So far in the fiscal year 2023, agents have recorded nearly 2.1 million encounters at the border, although May’s encounters marked a 25 percent decrease year on year, according to officials.