Border Patrol official says migrants drowned before agents were blocked by Texas guardsmen

WASHINGTON — A top Border Patrol official said three migrants who died crossing the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass on Friday had already drowned when agents received a distress call from Mexico, countering initial claims that the woman and two children had drowned after state soldiers blocked federal agents from reaching them. 

Still, Robert Danley, the chief patrol agent in the Del Rio sector, said in a sworn statement that Texas soldiers blocked Border Patrol officers from getting to two other migrants who were struggling in the river Friday night. Those migrants were rescued by a Mexican airboat and were suffering from hypothermia. 

The statement was submitted late Monday as part of the Department of Justice’s plea for the Supreme Court to restore federal access to a stretch of the border the state took over last week. It is the most detailed account yet of the deaths, which sparked outrage over the weekend, and it appears to corroborate key aspects of the Texas Military Department’s account of the incident. The military department said late Sunday that “claims that TMD prevented Border Patrol from saving the lives of drowning migrants are wholly inaccurate.”