1 dead, 3 missing after migrant raft overturns in Rio Grande

WASHINGTON — A 10-monthold baby was found dead Thursday and three other migrants were feared drowned after their raft flipped in the night on the Rio Grande as they tried to cross the U.s.-mexico border, law enforcement officials said.

The missing included a 7-year-old boy and another child believed to be around the same age, as well as a man.

Migrants often try to cross the river, mostly in poorly constructed rafts with no safety gear, and the water can be deceptively high and fast-moving.

According to one official, Border Patrol agents encountered a man at about 9:45 p.m. Wednesday evening near Del Rio, Texas. He told them a raft carrying nine people had overturned and his baby son and nephew had been swept away along with the other child and man.

The agents heard the man’s wife and an older son screaming in the darkness and the two were pulled from the muddy water alive, according to a preliminary report of the incident from the official.

Another man and his 13-year-old child were rescued nearby, the official said. The children were hospitalized for observation.

Border agents searching for the missing found the infant, a second official said.

A record number of Central American families are crossing the border, some on foot and some via the river.

Just last week, border agents rescued 10 people in a sinking raft in the same area, including a 3-year-old child who had become separated from her mother on the Mexico side.

Homeland Security officials say the system is straining under the crush of families who require different care and have different needs from the people agents and officers used to see crossing the border, mostly single men from Mexico.