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Two people, one reportedly a child, have been found dead in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, where Texas has installed oversized buoys to discourage migrants from crossing the border into the United States.
The Mexican foreign affairs secretary said late Wednesday that Texas officials confirmed that a body was found stuck on the buoys installed at Gov. Greg Abbott’s order amid international controversy. The buoys have brought condemnation from President Joe Biden’s administration, which has sued to force Texas to remove them.
El Siglo de Torreon, a newspaper in the Mexican border state of Coahuila, said the second body was found in the river on Wednesday near Eagle Pass’ Shelby Park. Víctor Gerardo Rodríguez Guevara, an official with the Mexican state of Coahuila, said both bodies will undergo autopsies in Mexico to determine the causes of death and to try to identify them, the newspaper said.
The Associated Press and other outlets have also reported the discovery of a second body.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador expressed outrage after the discovery of the bodies. “This is inhumane and no person should be treated like this,” he told reporters in his country Thursday.
The two casualties could mark a significant escalation in tensions along the border since Texas installed its barrier of buoys and razor wire to discourage unlawful crossings. The barriers sparked outrage and heightened tensions between Mexico, the Biden administration and Abbott’s office.
Discovery of the bodies comes just two weeks after USA TODAY documented how migrants, including young children, have been ensnared and slashed by razor wire along the border. An internal e-mail from a Texas state trooper raised the alarm that the state’s efforts had become “inhumane.”
The Texas Department of Public Safety said Thursday that officials believe the person found on the buoy drowned upstream and that federal authorities in the United States and the Mexican consulate were notified.
“Preliminary information suggests this individual drowned upstream from the marine barrier and floated into the buoys,” Steve McCraw, director of the agency, said in a statement issued by his office. “There are personnel posted at the marine barrier at all times in case any migrants try to cross.”
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said he wasn’t aware of the deaths and could not say if the Mexican government had raised its concerns directly with the White House.
Broadly speaking, he said, “We don’t want to see anybody hurt. Certainly, we don’t want to see anybody killed as a result of trying to make this treacherous journey.”
“This is a … dangerous journey that many people are making – some of their own will, some against their will, or some based on the corruption and deception by these by the smugglers,” Kirby said.
The administration is working to improve legal pathways and working regionally with other countries, including Mexico, to try to get at the root causes of the migration, he said.
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, laid blame for the deaths at the feet of Abbott for ordering the buoys to be placed in the river last month near Eagle Pass.
“The Texas Governor is knowingly trying to injure, maim and kill migrants seeking asylum in the United States with razor wire and drowning devices,” Castro said in a post on platform X, formerly Twitter.
The Justice Department sued Texas last month after Abbott refused to remove the floating barrier, which the Biden administration says was unlawfully put in place. The White House has called Abbott’s actions dangerous.
Contributing: Francesca Chambers of USA TODAY
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