Two other passengers who had been aboard the raft, another man and his 13-year-old son, were later found on the American side of the river. By Thursday morning, the agents were still searching for the four passengers who had not been recovered. The chaotic episode highlights the rising death toll as migrants from Central America try to cross the border with Mexico in efforts to request asylum in the United States. Two detained migrant children from Guatemala died in December while in Border Patrol custody, and a 16-year-old boy from Guatemala died earlier this week in Texas after arriving at a shelter for unaccompanied children. Raft crossings into Texas are a common form of transit into the United States, with the Rio Grande Valley sector being consistently the Border Patrol’s busiest.

Source: New York Times May 02, 2019 19:21 UTC