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9-Year-Old Migrant Girl Found Dead After Trying to Cross Rio Grande River

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A 9-year-old girl whose family heeded the mixed messages of the Biden administration and sought to cross the Rio Grande illegally was found dead more than a week ago.

News of her death — the first of a child that’s been reported amid the Biden-era surge of unaccompanied children who have swamped border facilities — was released Saturday.

The girl was found by Border Patrol agents responding to a rescue call on an island in the Rio Grande, according to The New York Times.

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Her mother and one other child were also on the island. The mother and the three-year-old boy were revived, authorities said.

The girl, whose name was not released, was sent to Eagle Pass, Texas, but was pronounced dead, according to a statement from Customs and Border Protection.

The CBP statement did not list a cause of death.

“It was considered a drowning,” said Lt. Jason Mares of the Eagle Pass Fire Department, according to NBC.

The woman who was rescued is Guatemalan. Both children are Mexican nationals, according to NBC.

“We extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of this small child,” Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Austin Skero said in a statement, according to KTRK-TV. “During these hard times our agents remain resilient, and I am extremely proud of their efforts to preserve human life.”

Skero’s statement said that since this federal fiscal year began Oct. 1, about 500 illegal immigrants have been rescued. Eighty-two have died in that time frame, according to The Times, which looked at CBP figures.

In 2019, a man and his 23-month-old daughter from El Salvador died while attempting to cross the river near Matamoros, Mexico. A picture of their bodies received widespread media attention at the time, and the incident was used as a condemnation of former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

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A Customs and Border Protection news release said the Rio Grande Valley sector has seen a 114 percent increase in unaccompanied children.

The Thursday release noted that 70 unaccompanied children were among 402 illegal immigrants detained on Wednesday and Thursday.

The perception that the border is open is fueling illegal immigration.

Will Biden be criticized in the same fashion Trump was?

“The mixed messaging is creating this mess,” said Jaime Diez, an immigration lawyer in Brownsville, Texas, according to The Times.

Human traffickers, known as “coyotes,” use that mixed messaging to lure migrants, he said.

“The coyotes know, and will say, ‘everyone gets in.’ So people come,” he said.

Elisabet Arreada Lopez told The Times  she and her daughters took inner tubes across the Rio Grande after leaving their native Guatemala behind.

“People back home were saying this is the moment to cross,” she said in a Brownville bus station after she had been processed.

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Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.
Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.
Jack can be reached at jackwritings1@gmail.com.
Location
New York City
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Politics, Foreign Policy, Military & Defense Issues




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