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By Alex Johnson and Associated Press
A 10-month-old child was found dead and three others are missing after a raft carrying nine people landed on the Rio Grande, authorities said Thursday, a day after the White House asked Congress additional funding for border security.
The missing were described as two boys aged 6 and 7 and a man.
"We are facing a senseless tragedy," said Raul L. Ortiz, chief patrol officer for the Del Rio sector of the Customs and Border Protection Directorate.
"The men and women of the US Border Patrol are doing everything in their power to prevent such incidents," he said. "And yet, unscrupulous smugglers continue to jeopardize the lives of migrants for financial gain."
Migrants often try to cross the river, mainly in poorly constructed rafts without any safety equipment. The water can be deceptively high and fast.
According to CBP, officers arrested a man suspected of illegally entering the United States at approximately 9.45 pm Wednesday near Del Rio, Texas. He told them that the raft carrying nine people was overturned and that his baby, his nephew, had been washed away, along with the other child and the man.
Officers heard the wife of this man and an older son screaming in the dark, and both men were removed alive from muddy water, CBP said.
Another man and his 13-year-old child were rescued nearby, the agency said. The children were taken to hospitals for observation.
Border officers then found the infant's body several kilometers downstream, CBP said.
A record number of families from Central America cross the border, some walking and others by the river. Last week, customs officers rescued 10 people in a raft sinking in the same area, including a 3-year-old girl who had been separated from her mother on the Mexican side.
CBP reported that during the last fiscal year, relief teams responded to more than 4,300 emergencies, resulting in 283 deaths, including drowning or desert deaths. The highest was in 2005, when 492 people died.
Officials from the Department of Homeland Security said that the border system was tense with the skyrocketing of families, who need different care and have different needs from those who used to be – mostly single men from Mexico .
On Wednesday, the White House asked Congress for $ 4.5 billion in extra funding for the border. Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan told a Senate subcommittee Thursday that the ministry needed additional funding to help manage the migrant rush and provide the appropriate care.
But Democrats are wary of giving more money to the administration, especially after the government's longest ever closure to President Donald Trump's request for funding at the border. Trump finally declared a national emergency to bypass Congress and get funding elsewhere.
The new emergency funding would not be used to build the wall, officials said.
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