Pictured: 20-year-Honduran migrant who died crossing Rio Grande, left mother and four siblings at Mexican border town shelter to look for a job in the U.S. to pay for emergency treatment for sister, who has Down syndrome
- Norlan Bayardo, a 20-year-old from Honduras, drowned in the Rio Grande on Sunday
- His body was found three miles away from the floating barrier that Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered installed in the river
- Bayardo’s mother said her son wanted to make it to the United States to find a job to cover the expense of a medical treatment for his sister
Mexico authorities have identified the young Honduran man who drowned in an attempt to cross to the United States this week.
Norlan Bayardo arrived at the border city of Piedras Negras with his mother and five siblings 12 days ago and was hoping to make it to the United States to find a job to cover the expenses of an urgent medical treatment for his sister, who is diagnosed from Down syndrome.
Yuri Supaya told Univision that her son took off with a friend and tried to cross the Rio Grande when a current swept him downstream Sunday.
‘The river swept him,’ the distraught mother told the network.
Supaya recalled her son approached her inside the shelter and told her that he had grown restless with the online application for migrants to check information regarding their asylum process.
Bayardo hugged her and took off for the Rio Grande shore.
Honduran migrant Norlan Bayardo was found dead Wednesday in the Rio Grande. The 20-year-old was trying to migrate with a friend to the United States on Sunday when a river current swept him away
Yuri Supaya pictured with her daughter, the youngest of her five children, who is diagnosed with Down syndrome
Supaya learned of her son’s tragedy after receiving a call from a friend who told her that her Bayardo was unable to withstand the river’s perilous current. She said that her son’s friend safely made it to the Texas shore.
Bayardo’s body was located on the Mexican shore of the Rio Grande on Wednesday, three miles south of the controversial floating barrier that Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered installed in the river across from Eagle Pass, Texas.
She was able to identify Bayardo after recognizing tattoos on his body as well as the Paris Saint Germain jersey and a pair of sneakers that he was wearing.
The Coahuila Attorney General’s Office is also trying to identify the body of another man who was located first along the buoys between Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras on Wednesday evening.
Mexico said the Texas Department of Public Safety had advised its consulate of the body along the floating barrier. But it was unclear if that was the body that ultimately ended up lodged against the buoys by the force of the river.
Norlan Bayardo’s body was found Wednesday on the Mexico shore of the Rio Grande, three miles south from the location of the controversial floating barrier installed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott
Migrants crossing into the United States from Mexico walk along large buoys being used as a floating border barrier on the Rio Grande on Tuesday
Norlan Bayardo had been in Mexico with his family for 12 days before he tried to cross the Rio Grande and drowned Sunday. His body was found Wednesday
Mexico said the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) had advised its consulate of the body along the floating barrier. But it was unclear if that was the body that ultimately ended up lodged against the buoys by the force of the river.
DPS director, Steve McCraw, said an initial report points to the man having ‘drowned upstream from the marine barrier and floated into the buoys.’
Mexico and the administration of President Joe Biden have raised concerns about the dangers behind the orange, wrecking ball-sized buoys that were placed to prevent migrants from unlawfully crossing to the United States.
The Mexican Foreign Relations Department also contends the barrier violates treaties regarding the use of the river and Mexico’s sovereignty.
‘We made clear our concern about the impact on migrants’ safety and human rights that these state policies would have,’ the department said in its statement Wednesday night.
A spokesperson for Abbott said in a statement Thursday that ‘the Mexican government is flat-out wrong’ and added that preliminary information showed the person drowned before coming near the floating barriers.
