Three missing, one dead after raft carrying migrants overturns

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is searching for survivors after a raft carrying several migrants including young children reportedly overturned during an attempt to cross the Rio Grande into Texas.

DHS officials said in a press release Thursday that the agency was searching for one adult and two young children, after their raft reportedly overturned along the border near Del Rio, Texas, late Wednesday night. An infant traveling with one of the adults was swept away and killed, according to the news release.

{mosads}“What we’re dealing with now is senseless tragedy,” CBP Del Rio sector chief patrol agent Raul L. Ortiz said, according to the release. “The men and women of the U.S. Border Patrol have been doing everything in their power to prevent incidents like this. And yet, callous smugglers continue to imperil the lives of migrants for financial gain.”

The search comes just days after Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials rescued 10 migrants whose raft began to sink during an illegal border crossing on the Rio Grande, according to an agency press release.

The increase in apprehensions of migrants crossing the border illegally in early 2019 has thrust the issue of immigration back into the national spotlight. Last week, an unaccompanied 16-year-old migrant boy died in U.S. custody after being transferred to a shelter operated by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).

His death followed two other young children, aged 8 and 7, who died in CBP custody in December. The agency has pointed to an increased number of migrants crossing the border illegally as resulting in a strain on CBP’s resources.

“CBP is facing an unprecedented humanitarian and border security crisis all along our southwest border and nowhere has that crisis manifested more acutely than here in El Paso,” agency chief Kevin McAleenan said earlier this year.

“We are doing everything we can to simply avoid a tragedy in a CBP facility,” he continued at the time. “But with these numbers, with the types of illnesses we’re seeing at the border, I fear that it’s just a matter of time.”