A new international investigative report found that hundreds more people have drowned trying to cross into the U.S. than the U.S. and Mexican governments reported. The Washington Post, Mexican newspaper El Universal and Lighthouse Reports reviewed death records from every Mexican state and Texas county along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Through their research and data from public records requests, they found more than 1,100 people drowned trying to cross the Rio Grande from Mexico into the U.S. between 2017 and 2023.
The investigation documented 858 deaths in Texas in that span, while U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recorded 587 across the entire southwestern border.
A CBP official told the Post it was a challenge to document every death. They claimed the unit running the tracking efforts has limited funding.
The number peaked in 2022, a year when a record number of migrants tried to cross into the U.S. The report states 267 people died between the U.S. and Mexico that year.
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Many of the people crossing were families. In 2023, 1 in 10 drownings involved a child, the report says.
The report found one Texas city in particular where many crossings and drownings occurred.
Eagle Pass became a hub because of its location across from a border area of Mexico considered safer than others controlled by gangs.
That area of the river is particularly tough to cross, with fast-moving currents and a sudden deep spot near the middle.
Additional challenges came from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s efforts to defy the Biden administration and enforce border security using state resources. Abbott’s administration has placed containers, buoys and barbed wire along the river to discourage crossings.
Abbott’s office told the Post that it didn’t believe the administration’s efforts, code-named Operation Lone Star, contributed to any deaths.
Abbott blamed the Biden administration, accusing it of encouraging people to take the risk of crossing.
A White House spokesperson told the Post that Biden administration policies implemented over the summer have reduced border crossings. They accused Republicans of engaging in “dangerous and inhumane political stunts.”
