A NINE-year-old Mexican girl died on Saturday while trying to cross into the US, border agents revealed, after Donald Trump blasted Joe Biden’s immigration policies as “inhumane.”
Agents with the Del Rio Sector’s Marine Unit were on a riverine patrol when they were flagged down by bystanders standing on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande River last week.
The bystanders pointed to a small island, where the agents discovered a woman and her two children lying unresponsive, Border Patrol said in a statement Thursday.
Agents immediately began administering first aid as the migrants were brought to shore.
The Guatemalan mother and her three-year-old son regained consciousness, Border Control told The Sun.
Her nine-year-old daughter failed to respond to first aid and remained unresponsive.
She was pronounced dead after being transferred to the Eagle Pass Fire Department’s Emergency Medical Services.
No further details have been provided on the cause of death or the group’s attempt to cross the river.
Both of the children were Mexican nationals.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of this small child,” said Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Austin L. Skero II.
“During these hard times our agents remain resilient, and I am extremely proud of their efforts to preserve human life.”
The Del Rio Sector said that it has rescued over 500 migrants attempting to illegally enter the country since October 1.
According to the Washington Times, this is the first loss of life of a child amid the current border crisis, as thousands of unaccompanied children swarm toward the US.
It comes as former President Trump blasts the current administration’s immigration policies as “inhumane.”
During an interview with Fox News on Thursday night, Trump claimed that Biden is leaving families and children to live in “squalor.”
“These children and people are, tremendous number of people by the way, and they are living on top of each other. In squalor. It is squalor,” he said in response to Biden’s claim that his own administration had left children “starving” on the Mexican side of the border.
Trump also hit out at Biden for allowing thousands to flood across the border with no Covid testing.
“There is no testing for Covid-19 as we call it sometimes, sometimes we call it something else,” he said, referencing his controversial “China virus” nickname.
“But there is no testing. There is no nothing and what’s going on is absolutely insane.”
He claimed that Biden had created a “dangerous situation” along the border.
Earlier on Thursday, Biden had held his first press conference as president in which he blamed Trump for the current migrant crisis.
The president claimed that Trump had got rid of $700million in foreign aid that would have stopped the surge of migrants in Texas.
Biden insisted that the find would have strengthened the economies of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala and encouraged migrants to remain at home.
He was grilled on his border policies and poor conditions for migrant kids throughout the briefing.
At one point, he snapped at a reporter who asked if he believes children “sleeping on floors and being packed into pods” is “acceptable.”
“Is it acceptable to me? Is that a serious question,” he shot back. “Come on,” he smirked.
“That’s why we’re going to be moving a thousand of those kids out quickly.”
During the 2019 migrant crisis, Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez and his 23-month-old daughter, Valeria, drowned in the Rio Grande.
They died in June 2019 at the end of their 1,500-mile journey from El Salvador.
The heartbreaking picture of their bodies washed up on the shore became the symbol of the humanitarian crisis.
It came just days after the bodies of a 20-year-old woman, two babies, and a toddler were found nearby.
