3-year-old boy dies trying to cross Rio Grande into US

A three-year-old boy died as his family tried to cross the US border through the Rio Grande River, which marks the border between the country and Mexico.

A spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety (TPS) announced the news Thursday (21).

On Wednesday afternoon, a boy was swept away by the rapids of the Rio Grande as he and his family tried to cross it north of the river’s barrier at Eagle Pass, the Naval Tactical Unit reported, a spokeswoman said in an email.

“Officers found the three-year-old boy and brought him to shore,” but he was pronounced dead at the hospital where medical personnel took him, he said.

Increase in the number of immigrants in the region

On Tuesday, the mayor of Eagle Pass, a Texas city on the border with Mexico, declared a state of emergency due to a sharp increase in migrants.

According to the latest official data, the Border Patrol stopped 132,652 migrants at the border with Mexico in July and 99,545 interceptors in June.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Wednesday that it would send 800 military personnel to “assist with logistics and other operations at the border.”

To date, the Department of Defense supports DHS with 2,500 permanent National Guardsmen.

Additionally, according to DHS, there are 24,000 Border Patrol agents and officers and more than 2,600 contract officers.

Since May 12, according to official data, the United States has expelled or returned more than 253,000 people to 152 countries, many of them Latin Americans.