EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) — The Texas Department of Public Safety’s Tactical Marine Unit has recovered four bodies — including an infant — from the Rio Grande in 48 hours, an agency spokesman said.
DPS spokesman Lt. Chris Olivarez said crews recovered the bodies of a woman and a man on Monday in Eagle Pass, Texas.
On Saturday, Olivarez said, DPS and members of Florida’s Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, sent to the border, dispatched two airboats after U.S. Border Patrol agents requested assistance on a possible infant drowning.
Crews recovered four individuals from the river, including an unresponsive woman and child. They performed CPR before medics took them to Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center, where both were pronounced dead.
Troopers turned the two survivors over to border agents. Olivarez said the identities of the woman and child remain unknown since none possessed identifying documents.
Also on Monday, DPS troopers encountered two Guatemalan children — ages 8 and 11 — abandoned along the edge of the river at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass.
Olivarez said the children told troopers that a woman left them on the riverbank in Mexico and told them to cross.
DPS personnel have recovered over 900 children in smuggling/trafficking-related events under Operation Lones Star, Olivarez said.