(NewsNation) —A migrant family from Africa was attempting to cross the Rio Grande River into the United States when two children, ages five and seven, were swept away down river, their parents say.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed to NewsNation the body of one child matching the descriptions given by the parents was recovered from the river. Authorities are still searching for the second child.
This is just one instance of the many hardships migrants are facing at the border as border crossing hit a two decade high amidst what some are calling a crisis.
Some Americans have ventured to the border to lend a helping hand. Fernie Quiroz of the Arizona California Humanitarian Coalition has offered his help to migrants at the border, bringing them water and cleaning up trash along their routes.
“Even in the extreme mountain range and desert of Arizona and California, people die,” Quiroz said. “People die chasing that hope.”
The son of migrants himself, Quiroz just wants to see the people crossing the border get a fair chance at life and treated with dignity.
“We want to make sure that humanity is not taken away from them,” Quiroz said.
Local officials say people like Quiroz are essential, particularly in places like Yuma, Arizona, that has seen a 590% increase in border crossings compared to last year.
“There’s only so much that you can do and it drains the system,” said Yuma County Supervisor Jonathan Lines. “
Lines would like to see the border closed and migrants turned away to discourage more from coming. But he has also accepted the reality is migrants are coming now and they will keep coming.
“The resources that we have are small in this area,” Lines said. “When you talk about the Rio Grande Valley they have 2000-plus agents, here we’ve got 900.