The discovery of two bodies in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass – where Texas has installed buoys to discourage migrants from crossing into the United States – continued to roil international controversy, even as details of the two deaths remained unclear.
Initial reports referred to one victim as a child. However, the Mexican foreign ministry later announced late Thursday that that one victim had been identified as a 20-year-old man from Honduras after his mother said the tattoos on the body matched that of her son’s.
According to Mexico’s foreign affairs secretary, the other body was found stuck on the buoys Wednesday.
Those buoys installed at Gov. Greg Abbott’s order last month have brought condemnation from President Joe Biden’s administration, which has sued to force Texas to remove them.
Víctor Gerardo Rodríguez Guevara, an official with the Mexican state of Coahuila told El Siglo de Torreón newspaper both bodies would undergo autopsies in Mexico to determine the causes of death.
It was not immediately clear whether either person’s death could be directly attributed to the floating barrier.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador expressed outrage after the discovery of the bodies. “No person should be treated like this,” he told reporters in his country Thursday.
The two casualties could mark a significant escalation in tensions along the border since Texas installed its barrier of buoys and razor wire to discourage unlawful crossings. The barriers sparked outrage and heightened tensions between Mexico, the Biden administration and Abbott’s office.
Discovery of the bodies comes just two weeks after USA TODAY documented how migrants, including young children, have been ensnared and slashed by razor wire along the border. An internal e-mail from a Texas state trooper raised the alarm that the state’s efforts had become inhumane.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said Thursday that officials believe the person found on the buoy drowned upstream and that federal authorities in the United States and the Mexican consulate were notified.
“Preliminary information suggests this individual drowned upstream from the marine barrier and floated into the buoys,” Steve McCraw, director of the agency, said in a statement issued by his office. “There are personnel posted at the marine barrier at all times in case any migrants try to cross.”
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said he wasn’t aware of the deaths and could not say if the Mexican government had raised its concerns directly with the White House.
Broadly speaking, he said, “We don’t want to see anybody hurt. Certainly, we don’t want to see anybody killed as a result of trying to make this treacherous journey.”
“This is a … dangerous journey that many people are making – some of their own will, some against their will, or some based on the corruption and deception by these by the smugglers,” Kirby said.
The administration is working to improve legal pathways and working regionally with other countries, including Mexico, to try to get at the root causes of the migration, he said.
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, laid blame for the deaths at the feet of Abbott for ordering the buoys to be placed in the river last month near Eagle Pass.
“The Texas Governor is knowingly trying to injure, maim and kill migrants seeking asylum in the United States with razor wire and drowning devices,” Castro said in a post on platform X, formerly Twitter.
The Justice Department sued Texas last month after Abbott refused to remove the floating barrier, which the Biden administration says was unlawfully put in place. The White House has called Abbott’s actions dangerous.
