Posted on 10/25/2006 11:07:17 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
HARLINGEN - Five bodies pulled from the Rio Grande are believed to be illegal immigrants who probably drowned while trying to cross into the United States through currents unusually turgid from recent rain, authorities said Tuesday.
The bodies of four men and one woman were recovered Monday evening, after a Mexican fisherman spotted them and notified U.S. authorities.
The bodies, found in a rural area below a dam about 65 miles west of McAllen, were decomposed and could have been dead for a week, said Carlos Delgado, an investigator for the Starr County district attorney's office.
Autopsies were to be conducted Tuesday, but Delgado said there was no indication of foul play.
"At this time it does not appear to be anything other than a drowning," he said.
Delgado said the bodies were fully dressed and wearing shoes, which could indicate a small boat or raft was being used for the crossing but overturned and got lost in the currents. No boat was recovered.
Immigrants planning to wade across usually undress and carry their clothing in a plastic bag.
None of the bodies had been identified Tuesday morning, but Delgado said the autopsy could turn up documentation. Mexican authorities have been notified.
The most recent Border Patrol statistics show 38 drownings from the Border Patrol's El Paso to Rio Grande Valley sectors between Oct. 1, 2005, and Sept. 15.
The river's calm surface is notoriously deceiving, and illegal immigrants drown trying to cross each year, said Todd Fraser of U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Washington, D.C.
"What seemingly looks like calm, tranquil waters can be very deadly," he said. "I think that part of the process of educating people on both sides of the border that the waters are very dangerous is also letting them know that the people most likely telling them 'Hey, you can make it across,' are smugglers who are making money off people's suffering."
In September 2004, two Border Patrol agents drowned after their boat capsized while they were patrolling the river.
How about "Hey, it's illegal!"
"unusually turgid"
Hmmm
Bush's fault!
Maybe they were Americans trying to reach Mexico
Why did they notify US authorities???? So they can get a Social Security settlement..?
ping
Wetbacks??
Sadly, this is only news because 5 drowned at once. If you've lived along the border you know that these are a common occurance, but usually only one at a time.
I have watched them float across with my own eyes. They strip to their underwear, carefully pack their clothes in a plastic bag. Then they tie a length of rope between two empty gallon milk jugs to use as a life preserver. They tie the plastic bag to another length of rope and tie that around their leg or waist to pull behind them. When they get to the US side they stash the ropes, jugs and plastic bag in the bushes and get dressed. Then they walk away unless the BP was also watching. This is in broad daylight.
We'll we now hear of inflatables on the mexican side of the border for the wet backs?
The bodies were on the US side of the river.
The Rio Grande river is just doing the work the hacks in DC are too lazy and unwilling to do
IOW more illegal aliens expenses shoved over onto the taxpayers. Mexicans say "Let the rich stupid Gringos pay for it"
little sympathy, if they'd come here legally they'd still be alive.
Rain?! TX got rain?!! Cool!! Bout time.
Maybe Lynn got confused with the bodies being turgid?
If anyone should feel guilty, it's the soft-headed do-gooders and the corrupt employers who encourage illegals to come here. These deaths are to be blamed on the likes of the Catholic Church, the US Chamber of Commerce, Ted Kennedy, John McCain, and all the others who give poor Latin Americans the hope of a better life if they can just make it across the border.
yep. high demand for cheap, sequined sombreros.
Just immigrants feeding the fish that American workers won't feed...
More victims of the prolonged drought.
Ya know any job is better then no job. Wherever these folks came from must relly be bad. No jobs, no hope.
They come here and send back most all they earn to make it that their families can live. Whose fault is all that?
The leaders of wherever they came from.
tumescent: adjective, `Filled up with or as if with something insubstantial: flatulent, inflated, overblown, tumid, turgid, windy.'
This thread is starting to read like a Harlequin novel....
Carefull now......... the LIBS don't like Americans refering to criminals as wet-backs. (it affects their self-esteme)
Mexican consular officials in McAllen said that five immigrants found drowned on the Rio Grande bank in Starr County this week were believed to be Guatemalan because of the currency found in their pockets.
They were not immigrants, they were ILLEGAL immigrants.
There is a big f-ing difference.
And I don't give a damn if they were Guats. Mexican, or British, Illegal is illegal.
Round all 10 or15 million illegals up and throw them out.
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