It was the rescue of a migrant family who were at risk of drowning in the Tijuana River

In the early hours of March 15, federal agents from the National Institute for Migration (IN M) of the Ministry of the Interior rescued a under 9 and their parents 36 and 38 as they prepared to drowning in the waters of Tijuana River.

The events happened as the Immigration personnel were circling the perimeter of the river, suddenly they heard screams coming from the bank of the body of water, exactly at the bottom of the concrete channel.

When they succeeded in getting closer, they realized that it was a father and a mother – originally from Angola – who They tried to hold their little son with all his might not to be swept away by the current of water, which had risen in level in the last hours, derived from the torrential rains in the state.

For the rescue, it was necessary to use ropes to lift, one by one, the members of this family nucleus of foreign migrants; The youngest was the first, followed by his mother and father, who -beyond the language difference- followed the instructions of the federal migration agents (AFM) to hold the rope.

Once insured and placed in a safe area, their health status was checked and they were then placed under the care of the System for the Integral Development of the Family (DIF) of the entity.

Likewise, the INM called on migrants not to expose minors to the dangers and risks of crossing river beds. Tijuana River or the Bravo Riverdue to the increase in the water level and the strength of the current.

El Río Tijuana is described as “intermittent” between México and Estados Unidos, is located in the northwestern limit of the Republic of Mexico, is 195 kilometers long and forms part of the peaceful vertiente of the Estado de Baja California en México and el sur de California in the USA. It is made up of two drainage networks that meet within the urban area of ​​Tijuana.

Due to the flow of migrants who move with children across the border with the neighboring country, the authorities have begun to implement operations to prevent the mortality that this entails. This is the case in the state of Oaxaca, where the commissioner of the National Migration Institute (IN M) of the Ministry of the Interior Francisco Garduno Yanezwith the Governor of oaxacaSalomón Jara Cruz, launched the Operation Easter 2023 of the Country Heroes program.

Likewise, official Francisco Garduño Yáñez affirmed that migrant families with children will not be allowed to cross the northern border with the United States. Since there is a protocol to rescue them and transfer them to shelters for their care and protection. He ordered the staff of the National Institute for Migration to carry out take their children away from migrant mothers and fathers if they try to cross the border to the neighboring country with them.

One of the most terrible and remembered cases is the one that occurred in February when a migrant woman and her son were stranded in the waters of the Bravo River. National Institute of Migration (INM) Group Beta personnel, aboard an airboat, managed to rescue and provide first aid to the two and searched for the minor’s father who, according to the mother, was not couldn’t get out of the current.