Missing Texas Soldier Rescued Immigrants Involved in Drug Trafficking, US Army Says

As the search continues for a Texas National Guard agent who disappeared Friday while trying to rescue two immigrants who were drowning in the Rio Grande, authorities say both individuals are suspected of being involved in drug trafficking.

[A National Guardsman Disappears While Trying to Rescue Migrants in the Rio Grande]

"Initial reports from the Texas Rangers determined that the two migrants were involved in transnational illicit narcotics trafficking," the Texas Military Department said in a statement.

The rescued immigrants remain in the custody of the United States Border Patrol.

The National Guard has already notified the family of the missing soldier, whose identity has not yet been published, the Military Department reported.

A Border Patrol boat navigates the Rio Grande River in the Eagle Pass Sector, Texas, on November 19, 2021. Sergio Flores / Getty Images

The search operation resumed this Saturday, after the divers suspended it on Friday due to the strong current of the Rio Grande.

The incident occurred in the Eagle Pass, Texas sector. 

The missing officer was assigned to Operation Lone Star, a deployment of National Guard forces and Texas Department of Public Safety agents along the border to reduce the flow of undocumented people, which was announced last summer by the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott.

[ICE paid $17 million for unused immigrant housing]

In early April, Abbott announced new measures to deal with the possible massive arrival of undocumented immigrants, after the Biden Administration announced that it will end Title 42, a program that allows expedited deportations due to the COVID-19 health emergency.

In recent weeks, Abbott has shipped

, saying the federal government should take care of them.

They intercept more than 300 migrants from various countries on a Mexican highway

April 23, 202200:23

This Friday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration to prevent it from lifting Title 42. The document alleges that the Government did not follow the necessary administrative procedure laws to lift the measure.

Paxton also argues that if the policy, put in place in March 2020 by the Trump administration, is scrapped, Texas would have to pay for social services for undocumented people crossing the border.

The Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, announced in early April that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will terminate Title 42 as of May 23.

[Texas sues Biden to stop suspension of Title 42]

The Department of Homeland Security estimates that, if Title 42 is eliminated, immigration authorities could register up to 18,000 daily encounters with undocumented immigrants on the southern border.

Some Mexican politicians have expressed concern that without the expedited deportation policy, the arrival of immigrants and the activity of the coyotes that move them will intensify.

"The flow of migrants that we have now is already out of control," Mexican Senator Rosa María Gonzalez, of the National Action Party, told Reuters.