MEXICO CITY ( Associated Press) — Mexican immigration officials said Sunday they found the bodies of three apparent migrants who drowned while trying to cross the Rio Grande, the border river with Texas also known as the Rio Bravo.
The National Immigration Institute said no identification was found on the two bodies, but documents from the third bore indicated he was from Nicaragua.
Officials of the Pravasi Protection Team of the institute also found three migrants alive, but were unable to cross the river due to freezing water temperatures and strong currents.
The Honduras woman, a 2-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy were rescued by an airboat and taken to a shelter in the border town of Piedras Negras.
It was the latest in a series of migrant deaths in Mexico that some workers have attributed to tight security, which has led some migrants to use risky routes to reach and cross the US border.
Earlier this week, a bus accident in northern Mexico killed seven migrants and injured 24. One of those killed was a pregnant woman and two of the injured were minors.
No nationalities were immediately available for the seven dead, but of those who survived, 11 were from El Salvador, seven from Honduras and four from Cuba. Also injured were a Panamanian and a Mexican national.
The bus fell under a railing and an embankment in the northern state of San Luis Potosí on Wednesday.
Immigrant smugglers often trample migrants aboard cargo trucks and buses crossing Mexico on their way to the United States.
On Tuesday, officials in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz said six migrants drowned on Mexico’s Gulf Coast and one was missing. Apparently, all were from Honduras. Smugglers sometimes transport migrants in open boats across the bay to avoid highway immigration checkpoints.
Four migrants, also Hondurans, were pulled alive from the sea by rescuers after their 25-foot open boat apparently veered off shore.
In another incident, immigration officials said last week that a migrant father and his 7-year-old son were found dead in the Suchiete River, which marks the border between Mexico and Guatemala. Officials said the 36-year-old man and his son were from El Salvador.
Migrants often swim, swim or take rafts and boats to cross border rivers to reach the United States.
