Four people, including infant, die trying to cross Rio Grande into Texas

Four people, including an infant, have drowned in the Rio Grande on the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas since Saturday, Texas Department of Public Safety officials said Monday.

The baby girl and a woman were pulled from the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas, along with two other people Saturday. The infant and woman died, while the other two survived, according to Lt. Chris Olivarez, spokesperson for the department.

Two other men were found drowned in the same section of river, one each Sunday and Monday.

The identities of the four drowned people are unknown because none of them carried identifying documents, according to Olivarez, who tweeted out the details.

The drownings come just days before the state of Texas plans to place floating buoys in the section of the river near Eagle Pass.

The buoys, announced last month, are intended to make it impossible to swim across the river from Mexico to the U.S., discouraging people from crossing the border illegally.

Eagle Pass is the first section — called “the center of gravity for smuggling” by Texas DPS Chief Steven McCraw — of the river to receive buoys.

“This strategy will proactively prevent illegal crossings between ports of entry by making it more difficult to cross the Rio Grande and reach the Texas side of the southern border,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office said in a statement last month.

Last fall, nine people drowned while attempting to cross the Rio Grande in the same Eagle Pass section of river.

The buoy strategy is the latest in Abbott’s attempts to stop undocumented immigrants from coming to Texas, which he has called a “crisis.”

On Saturday, Abbott sent a second busload of migrants from Texas to Los Angeles, part of a program that buses migrants to so-called “sanctuary cities,” places where undocumented immigrants have additional protections. The program has been widely criticized by Democrats and advocates for migrants.