4 found dead in Rio Grande Valley as migrants face Texas heat
U.S. Border Patrol agents have found the bodies of four people within the past month as summertime crossings from Mexico have become more dangerous, according to recent press statements by the federal agency.
Fewer migrants typically attempt to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in the summertime, according to seasonal apprehensions data, but those that do opt to do so face the danger of dehydration and heat exhaustion in the Texas brush country.
On July 21 a U.S. agent discovered the body of a deceased man south of Pharr, which borders Reynosa in Mexico’s Tamaulipas State. Agents contacted local authorities and the Justice of the Peace who transported the body to the Hidalgo County Coroner’s Office.
Later the same week, July 26, Border Patrol discovered another body, this time in Brooks County, which doesn’t border Mexico directly but is north of the border town of McAllen. Agents didn’t find any form of identification and turned the deceased over to the county coroner.
More recently, agents assigned to the Corpus Christi station located a body off of Highway 77, according to an August 17 press release. A fourth body was found by Weslaco agents conducting operations near Hidalgo, on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande riverbank.
Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector says that it is currently running several information campaigns to make migrants aware of the rescue capabilities of the agency and to discourage attempted crossings. One campaign is called “Operation Big Rig” and “No Se Arriesgue” and runs under the slogan, “They’re humans, not cargo!”
911 calls placed by migrants last month on July 31 in the Falfurrias area resulted in the rescue of several migrants who were lost in the brush after being abandoned by smugglers. On the same day a woman suffering from heat exhaustion and her teenage son were found near Fronton and taken to a hospital.
The next day Rio Grande City agents “encountered a distressed Guatemalan man who appeared to be suffering from heat related injuries near La Grulla,” Border Patrol disclosed. “Agents quickly moved the man to an accessible location and requested EMS to transport the subject to a local hospital for medical treatment.”
