US Border Patrol searching Rio Grande for missing toddler

DEL RIO, Texas – U.S. Border Patrol agents are searching for a missing 2-year-old girl in the Rio Grande near the Texas town of Del Rio.

Agents continued Wednesday to search the river that forms the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas.

A news release says agents from Del Rio detained a woman from Haiti shortly after she crossed the river. The woman told agents she had lost her daughter while crossing.

Border agents say they are rescuing immigrants from the river almost daily. But many migrants say they enter the river because officers turn away asylum seekers at official crossings, citing capacity concerns in a practice known as “metering.”

A migrant father and his 23-month-old daughter recently drowned while trying to cross the Rio Grande. The photos of their bodies have sparked international outrage.