Officials on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border searched for more victims Saturday after at least nine migrants died while trying to cross the rain-swollen Rio Grande, a dangerous border-crossing attempt in an area where the river level had risen by more than 2 feet in a single day. U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Mexican officials discovered the victims near Eagle Pass, Texas, on Thursday, following days of heavy rains. U.S. officials recovered six bodies, while Mexican teams recovered three, according to a CBP statement. It is one of the deadliest drownings on the U.S.-Mexico border in recent history. The river, which was a little more than 3 feet (90 centimeters) deep at the start of the week, reached more than 5 feet (1.5 meters) on Thursday, and the water was flowing five times faster than usual, according to the National Weather Service. The CBP said U.S. crews rescued 37 others from the river and detained 16 more, while Mexican officials took 39 migrants into custody. CBP did not say what country or countries the migrants were from and did not provide any additional information on rescue and search operations. Local agencies in Texas that were involved have not responded to requests for information. Read: Boat carrying Haitian migrants sinks off Bahamas, killing 17 Among the bodies recovered from the river by Mexican authorities was a man and a pregnant woman, although their nationalities were unknown, said Francisco Contreras, a member of Civil Protection in the Mexican border state of Coahuila. No details were released about the third body found. The Border Patrol’s Del Rio sector, which includes Eagle Pass, is fast becoming the busiest corridor for illegal crossings. Agents stopped migrants nearly 50,000 times in the sector in July, with Rio Grande Valley a distant second at about 35,000. Eagle Pass is about 140 miles (225 kilometers) southwest of San Antonio. Chief Patrol Agent Jason Owens of the Del Rio sector said that despite dangerous currents from recent rainfall, Border Patrol agents in the sector continue to encounter groups as large as 100 or 200 people trying to cross the Rio Grande each day. “In an effort to prevent further loss of life, we are asking everyone to please avoid crossing illegally,” Owens said in a statement. Among the reasons the area has become popular for migrants in recent years is that it is not as strongly controlled by cartels and is perceived to be somewhat safer, said Stephanie Leutert, director of Central America and Mexico Policy Initiative at the University of Texas' Center for International Security and Law. “It might be a different price. It might be seen as safer. It might keep you out of cities that are notoriously dangerous," Leutert said. “Those cities (in the Del Rio sector) definitely have had a reputation as being safer than say, Nueva Laredo." The area draws migrants from dozens of countries, many of them families with young children. About six of 10 stops in the Del Rio sector in July were migrants from Venezuela, Cuba or Nicaragua. The region also has been a popular crossing point for migrants from Haiti, thousands of whom have been stuck in border towns since 2016, when the Obama administration abruptly halted a policy that initially allowed them in on humanitarian grounds. The sector, which extends 245 miles (395 kilometers) along the Río Grande, has been especially dangerous because river currents can be deceptively fast and change quickly. Crossing the river can be challenging even for strong swimmers. “There are places when the water levels are down where you could wade across, but when the river is up it's extremely dangerous, especially if you're carrying kids or trying to help someone who is not a strong swimmer," Leutert said. In a news release last month, CBP said it had discovered bodies of more than 200 dead migrants in the sector from October through July. Read: 51 migrants die after trailer abandoned in San Antonio heat This year is on track to break last year’s record for the most deaths on the U.S.-Mexico border since 2014, when the U.N. International Organization for Migration began keeping record. The organization has tallied more than 4,000 deaths on the border since 2014, based on news reports and other sources, including 728 last year and 412 during the first seven months of this year, often from dehydration or drowning. June was the fourth-deadliest month on record, with 138 fatalities. The Border Patrol has not released official tallies since 2020. In June, 53 migrants were found dead or dying in a tractor-trailer on a back road in San Antonio in the deadliest documented tragedy to claim the lives of migrants smuggled across the border from Mexico. “The whole journey speaks to the desperation of people," Leutert said. “They know that crossing the river is dangerous. They know that hiking through ranchland is dangerous. They know that crossing Mexico as a foreigner is dangerous. But they’re willing to do this because what they’re leaving behind is, to them, a worse possibility than facing risk and trying for a better opportunity in the U.S." Some of the busiest crossings on the border — including Eagle Pass and Yuma, Arizona — were relatively quiet two years ago and now largely draw migrants from outside Mexico and Central America’s ‘Northern Triangle’ countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Mexico has agreed to take migrants from the ‘Northern Triangle’ countries, as well as its own nationals, if they are expelled from the United States under Title 42, the pandemic rule in effect since March 2020 that denies rights to seek asylum on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19. People from other countries are likely to be released into the United States on humanitarian parole or with notices to appear in immigration court because the U.S. has difficulty flying them home due to costs, strained diplomatic relations or other considerations. In the Border Patrol’s Del Rio sector, which includes Eagle Pass, only one of every four stops in July were processed under the pandemic rule, compared to about half across the rest of the border, according to government figures. Venezuelans were by far the most common nationality encountered by Border Patrol agents in the Del Rio sector in July, accounting for 14,120 of 49,563 stops, or nearly three in 10. They were followed by Cubans, who were stopped 10,275 times, and then by Mexicans, Hondurans, Nicaraguans and Colombians, in that order. As more people crossed into South Texas in the 2010s, Brooks County became a death trap for many migrants who tried walking around a Border Patrol highway checkpoint in the town of Falfurrias, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of the border. Smugglers dropped them off before the checkpoint and made arrangements to pick them up on the other side, but some perished on the way from dehydration. The Baboquivari Mountains in Arizona and ranches in Texas’ Brooks County still draw Border Patrol agents and grief-stricken families hoping to rescue migrants or, if not, find corpses, but the deceptively strong currents around the Texas towns of Eagle Pass and Del Rio have become increasingly dangerous as the area has become one of the most popular spots to enter the United States illegally. Not all victims are migrants. In April this year, the body of a Texas guardsman was recovered from the Rio Grande. He had jumped in to try to help a migrant who was struggling in the water.

As the world begins to travel again, Europe is sending migrants a loud message: Stay away! Greek border police are firing bursts of deafening noise from an armored truck over the frontier into Turkey. Mounted on the vehicle, the long-range acoustic device, or “sound cannon,” is the size of a small TV set but can match the volume of a jet engine. It’s part of a vast array of physical and experimental new digital barriers being installed and tested during the quiet months of the coronavirus pandemic at the 200-kilometer (125-mile) Greek border with Turkey to stop people entering the European Union illegally. Read:Boris Johnson, fiancée Carrie Symonds wed in London A new steel wall, similar to recent construction on the U.S.-Mexico border, blocks commonly-used crossing points along the Evros River that separates the two countries. Nearby observation towers are being fitted with long-range cameras, night vision, and multiple sensors. The data will be sent to control centers to flag suspicious movement using artificial intelligence analysis. “We will have a clear ‘pre-border’ picture of what’s happening,” Police Maj. Dimonsthenis Kamargios, head of the region’s border guard authority, told the Associated Press. The EU has poured 3 billion euros ($3.7 billion) into security tech research following the refugee crisis in 2015-16, when more than 1 million people — many escaping wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan — fled to Greece and on to other EU countries. The automated surveillance network being built on the Greek-Turkish border is aimed at detecting migrants early and deterring them from crossing, with river and land patrols using searchlights and long-range acoustic devices. Key elements of the network will be launched by the end of the year, Kamargios said. “Our task is to prevent migrants from entering the country illegally. We need modern equipment and tools to do that.” Researchers at universities around Europe, working with private firms, have developed futuristic surveillance and verification technology, and tested more than a dozen projects at Greek borders. AI-powered lie detectors and virtual border-guard interview bots have been piloted, as well as efforts to integrate satellite data with footage from drones on land, air, sea and underwater. Palm scanners record the unique vein pattern in a person’s hand to use as a biometric identifier, and the makers of live camera reconstruction technology promise to erase foliage virtually, exposing people hiding near border areas. Testing has also been conducted in Hungary, Latvia and elsewhere along the eastern EU perimeter. Read:In time for summer, Europe sees dramatic fall in virus cases The more aggressive migration strategy has been advanced by European policymakers over the past five years, funding deals with Mediterranean countries outside the bloc to hold migrants back and transforming the EU border protection agency, Frontex, from a coordination mechanism to a full-fledged multinational security force. But regional migration deals have left the EU exposed to political pressure from neighbors. Earlier this month, several thousand migrants crossed from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in a single day, prompting Spain to deploy the army. A similar crisis unfolded on the Greek-Turkish border and lasted three weeks last year. Greece is pressing the EU to let Frontex patrol outside its territorial waters to stop migrants reaching Lesbos and other Greek islands, the most common route in Europe for illegal crossing in recent years. Armed with new tech tools, European law enforcement authorities are leaning further outside borders. Not all the surveillance programs being tested will be included in the new detection system, but human rights groups say the emerging technology will make it even harder for refugees fleeing wars and extreme hardship to find safety. Patrick Breyer, a European lawmaker from Germany, has taken an EU research authority to court, demanding that details of the AI-powered lie detection program be made public. “What we are seeing at the borders, and in treating foreign nationals generally, is that it’s often a testing field for technologies that are later used on Europeans as well. And that’s why everybody should care, in their own self-interest,” Breyer of the German Pirates Party told the AP. He urged authorities to allow broad oversight of border surveillance methods to review ethical concerns and prevent the sale of the technology through private partners to authoritarian regimes outside the EU. Read:Rise in UK coronavirus cases stoke concerns over 3rd wave Ella Jakubowska, of the digital rights group EDRi, argued that EU officials were adopting “techno-solutionism” to sideline moral considerations in dealing with the complex issue of migration. “It is deeply troubling that, time and again, EU funds are poured into expensive technologies which are used in ways that criminalize, experiment with and dehumanize people on the move,” she said. The London-based group Privacy International argued the tougher border policing would provide a political reward to European leaders who have adopted a hard line on migration. “If people migrating are viewed only as a security problem to be deterred and challenged, the inevitable result is that governments will throw technology at controlling them,” said Edin Omanovic, an advocacy director at the group. “It’s not hard to see why: across Europe we have autocrats looking for power by targeting foreigners, otherwise progressive leaders who have failed to come up with any alternatives to copying their agendas, and a rampant arms industry with vast access to decision-makers.” Migration flows have slowed in many parts of Europe during the pandemic, interrupting an increase recorded over years. In Greece, for example, the number of arrivals dropped from nearly 75,000 in 2019 to 15,700 in 2020, a 78% decrease. But the pressure is sure to return. Between 2000 and 2020, the world’s migrant population rose by more than 80% to reach 272 million, according to United Nations data, fast outpacing international population growth. At the Greek border village of Poros, the breakfast discussion at a cafe was about the recent crisis on the Spanish-Moroccan border. Many of the houses in the area are abandoned and in a gradual state of collapse, and life is adjusting to that reality. Read:European regulators OK Pfizer vaccine for children 12-15 Cows use the steel wall as a barrier for the wind and rest nearby. Panagiotis Kyrgiannis, a Poros resident, says the wall and other preventive measures have brought migrant crossings to a dead stop. “We are used to seeing them cross over and come through the village in groups of 80 or a 100,” he said. “We were not afraid. ... They don’t want to settle here. All of this that’s happening around us is not about us.”

More than 500 migrant children were packed into plastic-walled rooms built for 32 people, sitting inches apart on mats with foil blankets Tuesday at the largest U.S. Customs and Border Protection holding facility for unaccompanied children. Overall, CBP’s main child processing center, a compound of white tents in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, held over 4,100 migrants, more than 3,400 of them children who traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border alone. The rest of the migrants being housed were families. The facility, designed for 250 people under guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the coronavirus pandemic, has had to adapt amid a spike in families and unaccompanied children crossing the border. The Biden administration allowed journalists to see conditions for the first time since the facility opened Feb. 9. It was a grim picture. A 3,200-square-foot (297-square-meter) space had been divided into several rooms for 32 children each under CDC guidelines, each separated by thick plastic walls instead of the chain-link fence used by previous administrations. Despite the health recommendations, one of the “pods” held nearly 700 kids, another had nearly 600 and others had just above 500. Everyone wore masks, but COVID-19 tests aren’t done unless they show symptoms. Doors to the rooms were open for free movement but there was little room to roam and no one to play games. Most children just sat on the ground close together, chatting quietly. Some were wrapped in foil blankets. Lights are dimmed at night. Children, most of them between 13 and 17, are separated by age. Families occupied a separate pod that was less crowded than the jam-packed rooms for older children. A room for “tender age” children from 3 to 9 years old consisted of a walled playpen with mats on the floor and far more space than the eight pods for older children. An 11-year-old boy cared for his 3-year-old sister, and a 17-year-old cared for her newborn. “I’m a Border Patrol agent. I didn’t sign up for this,” Oscar Escamilla, acting executive officer of the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley sector, said while looking at the younger kids. Children are processed in the tent facility in the town of Donna before being taken to longer-term care facilities run by U.S. Health and Human Services and then placed with a family member, relative or sponsor. About two dozen of some 270 children being transferred to HHS midday tested positive for COVID-19 — the only time they are tested unless they exhibit symptoms earlier. Escamilla said the overall positivity rate at the Donna facility was about 14%. As they prepared to leave, children who tested negative for COVID-19 played soccer in the outdoor recreation area, where they can go three times a day when their pods are being cleaned. Those who tested positive for the virus gathered around metal benches off to the side and will still go to HHS centers. The Border Patrol is apprehending far more children daily than HHS is taking, leading to a severe backlog. The Border Patrol is not supposed to detain children for more than three days, but HHS lacks space. More than 2,000 kids have been at the Donna facility for more than 72 hours, including 39 for more than 15 days. One child had been there 20 days. The average stay was 133 hours. “The intent of the Border Patrol is not detention. We’re not in the business of detention,” said Escamilla, the official who supervised the media tour. “We’re forced into the business because we can’t turn them over to anybody.” HHS is housing children at convention centers in Dallas and San Diego and is opening large-scale sites in San Antonio, El Paso and elsewhere. A large HHS facility is being built near the holding center in Donna, separated by a chain-link fence. Noise from construction equipment filled the air near seven buses that were to take children to other HHS facilities. About 250 to 300 children enter the Donna facility daily and far fewer leave, a “lopsided” difference that Escamilla said was leading to more crowded conditions. It has held as many as 4,600 migrants. More than 17,000 unaccompanied children were in U.S. custody as of Monday, about 12,000 with HHS and the rest with Customs and Border Protection. On Monday, 446 children entered CBP custody but only 229 went to HHS. HHS, which opened a facility Tuesday for 500 children at Fort Bliss in Texas, is working to build up to a capacity of 13,500 beds, spokesman Mark Weber said. Several hundred kids and teenagers are crossing the border daily, most fleeing violence, poverty or the effects of natural disasters in Central America. President Joe Biden has declined to resume his predecessor’s practice of expelling unaccompanied children. Also read: Immigrants cheered by possible citizenship path under Biden But his administration has continued expelling adults under a coronavirus-related public health declaration enacted by former President Donald Trump. Biden also has tried to expel most families traveling together, but changes in Mexican law have forced agents to release many parents and children into the U.S. In some cases, parents refused entry into the U.S. have sent their children across the border alone, hoping they will be placed with relatives eventually. Biden has faced intense pressure to bring more transparency to how large numbers of migrant children are being treated. In his administration’s first tour of the Donna holding facility, two journalists from The Associated Press and a crew from CBS shared text, photos and video with other news outlets as part of a pool arrangement. Also read: Biden to prioritise legal status for millions of immigrants At the facility, children entered a tent with a dirt floor and three rows of bleacher-style seats. About 60 children waited to be admitted Tuesday, all wearing masks and seated close together. They then go into a small room for lice and scabies inspection and a general health check, including whether they have a fever. Their hair is hosed down. The facility is staffed by physician assistants and nurse practitioners, who perform psychological tests, including asking children if they have had any suicidal thoughts. All shoelaces are removed to avoid harm to anyone. Amid the loud hum of air conditioning vents, children are led to a room for processing, with anyone 14 and older getting photographed and having their fingerprints taken. Younger kids don’t. In another room, agents ask them if they have a contact in the U.S. and allow the child to speak with them by phone. Plastic shields separate the agents and the children, who are seated at tables. They get bracelets with a barcode that shows a history of when they showered, medical conditions and any other personal information.   All children are given notices to appear in immigration court, clearing the way for them to be released to Health and Human Services. About 1,200 children were ready for release Tuesday but there was nowhere to send them, Escamilla said.

The Justice Department rescinded a Trump-era memo that established a “zero tolerance” enforcement policy for migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, which resulted in thousands of family separations.

Months before the Trump administration separated thousands of families at the U.S.-Mexico border, a “pilot program” in Texas left child-welfare officials scrambling to find empty beds for babies taken from their parents in a preview of bigger problems to come, according to a report released Thursday by congressional Democrats.