Eagle Pass uses COVID-era refrigerated trailer morgues to store migrant bodies as river drowning and dehydration deaths rise
In the Eagle Pass border area, the deadliest point to cross the US-Mexico border, the morgue has run out of space to store migrant bodies.
Local authorities are currently using a refrigerated trailer, bought during the pandemic, to house 28 bodies, although the space is only intended for 20, reported Washington Post.
Among them an entire Venezuelan family who drowned together.
About half of the border crossers are not identified, as some migrants do not have ID on them when their bloated bodies are pulled from the river.
Most either drowned or died of exposure to heat or dehydration on remote and large ranches in Texas.
Local authorities tasked with managing the bodies, documenting them and possibly reaching family members face extraordinary challenges, such as remains that have been in the river for so long that the current has literally washed away facial features.
‘River. River. Ranch. Ranch,’ said a local justice of the peace, identified as Smith, as she looked at pictures of the dead on her phone. It is her decision whether to request an autopsy on a migrant.
Local authorities are currently using a refrigerated trailer, bought during the pandemic, to house 28 bodies, although the space is only intended for 20
The grim interior of the makeshift morgue that became a symbol of the COVID pandemic
A migrant is pulled from the water near Eagle Pass, Texas in a video shared with DailyMail.com in February
Migrants wade across the dangerous Rio Grande, the river that separates the United States and Mexico
A mother and her child are rescued from the water by members of the Texas National Guard
‘John Doe. Jane Doe. John Doe. Foster, the mother gave birth by the river, but the child did not survive. They come from everywhere. I say a little prayer for each one.’
More than 1.7 million migrants crossed the border illegally from October to March this year, according to federal statistics.
The nation has seen historic numbers of migrants enter the country since 2021, which has had unintended consequences and taxed scarce resources in places like Eagle Pass.
Maverick County had only set aside $100,000 to deal with migrant bodies, but will spend more than $1 million, the county attorney told the Washington newspaper.
The record number of border crossings has also led to a record number of rescues, as migrants are often plucked from the river that separates Texas and Mexico.
Known as the Rio Grande in the United States, the river is called Rio Bravo, or fierce, in Mexico.
Border Patrol agents save a child from drowning along the Texas border
An entire family in danger of drowning is pulled from the river by Texas law enforcement
A woman and several children were among those rescued
A child is collected after being plucked from the Rio Grande
Border Patrol rescues of migrants have also increased to 37,323 in 2023.
In comparison, only 2,920 were rescued in 2019 before the border crisis began.
At least 895 migrants died crossing into the United States in 2022, the last year for which data is available.
The United Nations designated the US-Mexico border as deadliest migration land route in the world last year.
Del Rio, of which Eagle Pass is a part, was the deadliest.
Migrant crossings have declined in Eagle Pass since January
A Mexican National Guardsman shines a light as a police officer uses a stick to rescue a Columbia woman who was quickly pulled downstream by the rushing current while trying to cross the Rio Grande
A man tries to revive a man from Mexico who is unconscious and lying on the shore of the Rio Grande River near Eagle Pass
But the rising toll is more than just financial.
Many migrants are buried without their families ever knowing what happened to them, as lack of ID prevents notification.
American first responders pulling the bloated bodies from the river feel it too.
Firefighter and emergency medical technician Marcos Kypuros saved several children in a few weeks in November.
“It got to the point where I put them in the body bags in a way that I didn’t even have to see their faces anymore,” he told the paper.
He avoids talking about his work with the family, but has to describe the body removals at work in painful detail.
Deputy Sgt. Aaron Horta is tasked with documenting the remains.
He catalogs scars, tattoos, birthmarks and clothing to help identify a migrant whose family might come looking for them.
Before photographing the deceased, he applies Vicks VapoRub under his nose and takes menthol lozenges to mask the smell of rotting corpses.
‘If they’ve been in the water for a while, their skin gets cut and woven and starts to peel off. Their eyes, nose and mouth become swollen. For a while I couldn’t sleep,” Horta said.