Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol agents carried out multiple rescues of migrants in life-threatening situations over the past few days. One included a mother and her nine-year-old son who human smugglers abandoned in the deadly ranch lands of Brooks County, Texas.
Falfurrias Border Patrol Station officials received an emergency call on Saturday morning from a Salvadoran migrant who said his nine-year-old brother became lost on a ranch as they attempted to circumvent the interior checkpoint located on U.S. Highway 281 in Brooks County, according to information received from Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol officials.
Blatant disregard for human life – smugglers abandoned a 9 year old child and his mother. #USBP found the family on a desolate ranch in Falfurrias, TX.
Smugglers’ greed has no limits.https://t.co/BrXYSimV7s pic.twitter.com/EmCQIHiBBT
— Chief Patrol Agent Brian Hastings (@USBPChiefRGV) August 30, 2021
Agents responded to the GPS coordinates provided by the brother and, within one hour, found the child and his mother. The agents transported the mother and child to the Falfurrias Station for medical evaluation and processing.
Later that day, a U.S. Coast Guard riverine unit patrolling the Rio Grande near La Joya, Texas, came upon a raft with three people attempting to cross from Mexico into Texas. The smugglers on the Mexican riverbank quickly pulled the raft back to their shore, causing the raft to capsize.
Most of the migrants quickly scrambled to the Mexican side. However, one man immediately became in distress and called for help as he repeatedly went underwater, officials reported. The Guardsmen positioned their boat alongside the drowning migrants and pulled him aboard. They transported him to Border Patrol agents for evaluation and processing.
On Friday evening, Rio Grande City Station agents received information about two people running toward a waiting vehicle near Roma, Texas. A Texas Department of Public Safety trooper responded to the area and approached the vehicle. A female quickly jumped out of the moving vehicle.
A second subject jumped from the vehicle and fled into the brush. After stopping the vehicle, the driver, a U.S. citizen, told the trooper he is on federal probation for narcotics and human smuggling.
The trooper called the local EMS service for the woman who injured herself when she jumped from the moving vehicle. During her medical evaluation, the Guatemalan woman lost consciousness. The EMS crew transported her to a local hospital for her leg injury. The second migrant was not found.
Another Coast Guard riverine unit patrolling the Rio Grande near Mission, Texas, on Sunday morning found a male migrant attempting to hold onto a log in the middle of the river. He also utilized plastic bottles stuffed in his shirt to try and stay afloat, officials stated. The Guardsmen pulled their boat alongside the log and pulled the Mexican national into the boat. Border Patrol agents onshore medically assessed the man and transported him to the station for processing.
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