Mullin v. Al Otro Lado · ¶96

Desperate to flee these conditions and secure the opportunity to apply for asylum, “[s]ome attempted to reach U. S. soil by other means,” including by attempting to cross the border between ports of entry by trekking through deserts or swimming across the Rio Grande. Ibid. Often, these efforts had tragic ends. One couple that grew discouraged after a month of waiting in a camp near the border decided to cross the river and ask for asylum once they reached U. S. soil, but they were caught in a swift current and drowned. App. 235. Another woman also drowned, along with her 2-year-old son, after she gave up waiting in a tent camp and attempted to swim across the river. Ibid.; see 138 F. 4th, at 1110 (describing other “young children” that “tried to swim across the Rio Grande River and drowned”). Hundreds of others have met a similar fate, and many more died crossing the desert along the…

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