August 25th 2022
Huge rise in border deaths from drowning, dehydration overwhelm Texas border town’s morgues
by New York Post
In South and Central America, residents are hearing about migrants stepping off buses into new lives in cities like New York and Washington, DC — but they likely don’t know just how many people are dying to get there.
The Post reported on Tuesday that a 5-year-old girl and 3-year-old boy died while trying to cross the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas, while an infant was left fighting for life.
And now, sources say that local morgues in that town are running out of space — unable to keep up with the number of migrants who drown while crossing the Rio Grande.
The treacherous trek across the fast-moving river separating Mexico from Texas has claimed more lives in recent weeks than locals know how to handle.
“Every day we get maybe three or four [drownings],” said Tom Schmerber, sheriff of Maverick County, Texas, which includes the 30,000-person ranch town of Eagle Pass.
A recent bout of rain made the already high water levels even more dangerous. Among those who don’t make it are children and pregnant women.
“Last week, one of the morgues didn’t have a place for any more bodies,” said Schmerber. He rejected one morgue director’s request to move bodies to the local jail and “park them outside.” It felt wrong to the sheriff: “I said, ‘No, I don’t want to take the responsibility if an animal comes.’”
A local Maverick County funeral home director told The Post he’s had to “stack” bodies as he runs out of space.
The latest discovery was especially heart-wrenching. “We just picked another baby up — a baby. I’m so pissed I saw a baby,” Schermber said.
The Post was shown tragic photos of migrants found dead over the past few months in Eagle Pass — bodies seemingly bloated and distended from being in the water, faces crusted with blood leaked from the mouth and nose and, perhaps most horrifying, a deceased toddler pulled out of the river.
The boy and his infant brother, from Nicaragua, were being carried across the river by their uncle earlier this week. “As [the uncle] entered the river, it was too deep. The uncle went under. He lost them under the river,” Maverick County Sheriff’s Deputy Santiago “Jimmy” Benavides, 43, told The Post.
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