A U.S. Customs and Border Patrol boat patrolling the Rio Grande was shot at Friday morning, the agency has announced.
“Early this morning, agents assigned to the Rio Grande City Station Marine Unit patrolling near Fronton, Texas, reported they were fired upon from the Mexican riverbank,” CBP said in a statement released Friday morning. “Agents saw four subjects with automatic weapons who shot over 50 rounds at them. The boat was hit several times but no one on board was injured.”
Running along the Texas–Mexico border, the Rio Grande is a hotbed of illegal immigration. Smugglers routinely expose migrants to unsafe conditions in order to raft them across the river into U.S. territory. The perilous but common journey captured national attention in June after a photo emerged of a father and daughter who drowned while trying to cross the river. The photo, which went viral on social media and appeared in newspapers around the world, showed 25-year-old Oscar Ramirez face down on the river bank next to his two-year-old daughter.
CBP had rescued 63 migrants from the river this year as of April 26.