Border Patrol Agents Recover Skeletal Remains of Four Migrants in South Texas

Border Patrol agents assigned to the Rio Grande Valley Sector recovered the skeletal remains of four migrants attempting to circumvent immigration checkpoints in South Texas. Only two identification documents were found with the deceased.

On Valentine’s Day, agents assigned to the Falfurrias Border Patrol Station and Brooks County Sheriff’s Office deputies received a call from a rancher that discovered a set of skeletal remains. The agents went to the scene and recovered the remains, according to information provided to Breitbart Texas by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officials. No identification documents were found with the deceased migrant.

The following day agents and deputies received two separate notices from ranchers about the discovery of additional remains. One of the deceased victims of cartel-connected human smugglers had a Salvadoran identification document near their remains. The second set were found on a different ranch near Falfurrias.

“It is hard to determine how long these people lay in the fields after they died,” Brooks County Sheriff Benny Martinez told Breitbart Texas. “Between the harsh climate, animals, and insects, a body decomposes to skeletal remains very quickly down here. The medical examiner should be able to help with establishing a better time of death.”

“These smugglers have no regard for human life,” the sheriff continued. “When a person gets sick, injured, dehydrated, or otherwise can’t keep up with the pack, the smugglers simply leave them behind to die.”

The discovery of more skeletal remains continued the following day when federal agents and Kenedy County Sheriff’s Office deputies received a call from a rancher near Sarita, Texas. Sarita is the location of one of two Border Patrol Checkpoints located about 80 miles north of the Rio Grande Valley border with Mexico. The deputies and agents responded to the call from a rancher about the discovery of a deceased migrant. After a local justice of the peace declared the migrant to be dead, agents recovered the remains and transported them to a university for identification confirmation. Agents discovered a Honduran identification document near the deceased migrant’s remains.

Border Patrol officials caution that attempting to avoid the immigration checkpoints in South Texas is very dangerous.

In January, Sheriff Martinez told Breitbart Texas that the bodies and remains of nine illegal immigrants were recovered in just one month. The sheriff attributed the 30 percent increase over the previous January to an unusually strong cold snap.

“The cold snaps in January were devastating,” Brooks County Sheriff Benny Martinez told Breitbart Texas in January. “Despite our best efforts to try and prevent the loss of lives, we ended up finding the bodies of nine people. Last year — we lost seven during the same period.”