African migrants surge at U.S.-Mexico border; Rio Grande drownings up
MEXICO CITY, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- Piedras Negras, a city across the U.S.-Mexico border from Eagle Pass, Texas, saw the arrival of more than 90 refugees in the past two months from war-ravaged African countries trying to flee to the United States. Eagle Pass has also seen 15 migrants from Latin American countries dying as they tried to enter the United States this year, either drowning while crossing the Rio Grande river or from heat stroke. Many of the African refugees had been travelling for at least three years, the Rev. José Valdés, an advocate for migrants' rights told UPI in a phone interview from Piedras Negras, where the Catholic Church runs a shelter. "After leaving Cameroon, Angola and the Congo they arrived in South America. Then they made it to Guatemala, and after cr...