National Migration Institute of Mexico
The U.S.-Mexico border has found itself the site of yet another unspeakable tragedy with the discovery of a Venezuelan migrant girl’s body floating in the Rio Grande. Her death is the latest in a string of tragedies involving migrants trying to flee to safety. Just last month, the bodies of 28 migrants en route to Europe washed up on a Libyan beach. U.S. border officials had asked for help finding a girl wearing a red jacket, jeans, and socks that had gone missing. Mexican immigration authorities joined the search, ultimately recovering her body from a stretch of the river in Ciudad Acuna, which borders Texas. The numbers of Venezuelan migrants crossing through Mexico to reach the U.S. spiked in 2021, pushing the Mexican government to issue new visa requirements just this month in order to curb Venezuelan immigration.