Texas National Guard Soldier Feared Drowned in Rio Grande

HOUSTON — A member of the Texas Nationwide Guard was lacking and believed drowned within the Rio Grande on Friday whereas stationed alongside the river, as a part of a mission ordered by Gov. Greg Abbott to assist forestall unlawful border crossings, in keeping with two officers briefed on the matter.

The Texas Navy Division, in a short assertion, stated the Guard member “has gone lacking alongside the river throughout a mission associated incident” as a part of his project with the border mission, generally known as Operation Lone Star. “The soldier has not been discovered,” the division stated, including that an lively search was underway.

The guardsman, who was not instantly named, had been making an attempt to rescue a migrant girl as she struggled within the water, in keeping with one of many officers, Sheriff Tom Schmerber of Maverick County, which incorporates the town of Eagle Move, the place the incident occurred.

The girl had been crossing as a part of a comparatively small group of migrants on Friday morning, the sheriff stated. The guardsman went in to help her, and appeared to have been pulled away by the present at round 8:30 a.m., the sheriff stated. The girl survived and made it throughout the river to the USA, he stated.

“It’s very harmful, this river, the Rio Grande — it’s very difficult,” stated Sheriff Schmerber, who’s a former U.S. Border Patrol officer.

The sheriff stated the county had seen about two drownings of migrants every week. However the drowning of any regulation enforcement officer throughout border operations is significantly extra uncommon. “Once I was within the Border Patrol, we suggested by no means to leap after anyone,” he stated.

The obvious drowning comes at a time of pitched political debate over easy methods to deal with a surge of migrants on the southern border and whether or not to finish a Trump-era public well being rule that has allowed federal brokers to rapidly flip again many migrants who arrived on the border through the coronavirus pandemic. That rule, generally known as Title 42, is predicted to run out in late Might, although President Biden is below stress from Republicans and a few Democrats to increase it. Federal officers have been making ready for an inflow of as many as 18,000 migrants a day after Title 42 ends.

Mr. Abbott has stated that the Biden administration has carried out little to safe the border from unlawful crossings, which surged final yr, and he has sharply elevated the variety of state regulation enforcement brokers on the border with Mexico.

Final yr, Mr. Abbott, a two-term Republican who’s up for re-election within the fall, ordered 1000’s of Texas Nationwide Guard troops to patrol the border, a mission that was anticipated to price greater than $2 billion a yr. Some Guard members described the project as rapidly organized, disorganized and politically motivated.

On the identical time, the variety of migrants who died or had been reported lacking whereas making an attempt to cross into the USA sharply elevated final yr, with greater than 600 deaths recorded by the Worldwide Group for Migration.

Tiffany Burrow, director of the Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition, stated that although many migrants had perished within the often-dangerous river currents, the obvious drowning of the guardsman on Friday demonstrated the hazards to regulation enforcement brokers.

“Border Patrol and the guards put their lives on the road in moments like that,” Ms. Burrow stated.

Edgar Sandoval contributed reporting.