Another Migrant Body Found on Texas Ranch near Mexican Border

A Brooks County Sheriff’s Office deputy assisted in the recovery of another migrant body on a ranch located about 80 miles from the Texas-Mexico border. So far this year, 37 migrants were found dead in this single rural county.

Dispatchers with the Brooks County Sheriff’s Office in Falfurrias, Texas, received information on September 13 from Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol agents about the discovery of a dead migrant on a ranch in the southern part of the county. The ranch is near the town of Encino, Texas, a known drop-off area for human smugglers attempting to move their “human cargo” around the Falfurrias Border Patrol Checkpoint located in the center of the county.

Dispatchers sent Deputy Elias Pompa to the ranch where he met up with a Border Patrol agent, a justice of the peace, and a funeral home director, according to information provided to Breitbart Texas by Brooks County Sheriff’s Office officials.

The Falfurrias Station Border Patrol agent escorted the team 4.7 miles into the ranch. Deputy Pompa learned a Border Patrol agent found the recently deceased migrant while patrolling through the ranch earlier in the day searching for smuggling crews.

Pompa observed the migrant’s body lying face-down under an oak tree. The body appeared intact and had not yet entered an advanced stage of decomposition, according to photographs of the scene.

The man was wearing blue jeans, black boots, a black belt, and a black shirt, the report states. Pompa found three water bottles and some cookies on the ground surrounding the body. During a search, the crew found two backpacks — each containing a wallet. One wallet was found in a plastic bag but was empty. The other contained a prayer card, a phone card, $101, and $1,150 pesos. No identification documents were found with the body.

The justice of the peace made the official death pronouncement and the funeral home worker loaded the remains for transport to the Webb County Medical Examiner’s office in Laredo, Texas. The medical examiner will attempt to identify the body and determine the cause of death.

So far this year, 37 died in this single county in South Texas. This accounts for nearly 20 percent of the more than 190 migrants found dead while or shortly after crossing the Mexican border into Texas, and more than 10 percent of the nearly 320 migrant deaths along the entire U.S.-Mexico Border as reported by the International Organization for Migration’s Missing Migrant Report.