Published on : Monday, May 6, 2019
The group of nine people aboard are part of a massive wave of migrants — most from violence-wracked Central American countries — trying to enter the United States.
Three other people, two of them children, were missing after the raft capsized on the US-Mexico border, US Customs and Border Protection said in a statement.
The accident on the Rio Grande took place Wednesday night, CBP said, calling it a “senseless tragedy.”
Agents came upon a man who told agents that all nine people on the raft fell into the Rio Grande when the vessel flipped over.
His 10-month-old son and seven-year-old nephew were among those swept away. An adult man and a girl were also missing, and the search was continuing. The body of the baby boy was found several miles downstream.
The wife and six-year-old son of the man who reported the accident were found a short time later, struggling in the water, and were rescued by authorities.
US President Donald Trump has declared the influx a national emergency and his administration has taken steps to deter would-be asylum seekers, many of them family groups with children.