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The dead body of a young migrant boy was discovered Thursday on the Rio Grande.
Mexican authorities made the discovery on the south side of the river after Border Patrol agents encountered his parents earlier in the week, according to astatementfrom U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The parents were taken into custody as the Del Rio Station’s Boat Patrol unit searched the river with assistance from officials in Mexico. “Efforts are still ongoing to locate the other child,” CBP noted in the release.
An adult male’s body was also found in the vicinity, but it is unclear if the deaths were related.
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More than 650 migrants died last year attempting to cross the Mexico border into the U.S., the highest number recorded since 2014, according to theInternational Organization for Migration(IOM).
“Dozens of states have committed to the Global Compact for Migration but very few have engaged on Objective 8 to ‘save lives and establish coordinated international efforts on missing migrants,'” said Frank Laczko, director of IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre. “IOM urges States to develop policy and practice to reduce the risks that people face in seeking a better life.”
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Last month, the Supreme Court argued over whether PresidentJoe Biden’s administration should be able torepeal the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” border policy, per CNN. Launched in 2019, the program allows the Department of Homeland Security to send asylum seekers back to Mexico to await their hearings, subjecting them to weeks or months in often perilous conditions.
The session came after a federal judge in Louisianatemporarily blocked Biden, 79, from ending the public health authorityTitle 42, which allows border officials to turn migrants back to their home countries amid theCOVID-19pandemic.
source: people.com
