Honduran mother-of-two, 28, drowns after she and her brother-in-law tried to swim around fence at US-Mexico border

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A Honduran mother-of-two who was attempting to illegally enter the United States from Mexico drowned after she tried to swim around a border fence.

Yuri Ríos was accompanied by her brother-in-law, José Dueñas, when the pair were separated by a strong current in the Pacific Ocean beach waters in Tijuana on Saturday.

Dueñas told Univision that he safely made it back to shore and tried to go back for her before he found her lying on the beach sand.

'We did not have another option. Our thought was to cross and I had to take her by the hand since she was a woman,' Dueñas said.

'A wave took her away from me when we were in the sea about to cross the fence. I came back for her, but when I found her she was already face down.'

Yuri Ríos drowned Saturday after she attempted to swim from Tijuana, Mexico, to the United States. The 28-year-old mother of two boys was with holding on to the hands of her brother-in-law, José Dueñas, when the pair was separated by a current as they were set to go around a border fence.

José Dueñas attempted to unlawfully enter the United States on Saturday by swimming around a border fence in Tijuana, Mexico. He was holding on to his sister-in-law, Yuri Ríos, when a wave separated them. He told Univision that he found her lying in the sand and that paramedics tried to revive her before declaring her dead

Tijuana, Mexico, was the site of Saturday's tragic incident when a Honduran migrant woman drowned as she attempted to swim around a border fence that separates Mexico and the United States

Mexican news outlet Milenio reported that Dueñas sought the assistance from a man at the beach who was able to pull the 28-year-old woman from the water.

Paramedics later arrived and attempted to resuscitate her, but declared her dead on the scene.

It's unknown if Ríos previously had applied for asylum and how much time she had been in Tijuana, a Mexican border that has been overwhelmed with the arrival of thousands of Central American migrants seeking asylum from the Unites States.

Before setting out on the deadly trek across the Pacific Ocean waters, Ríos had left her two sons, aged 11 and 13, under the care of her aunt at a shelter in Tijuana.

Norma Ríos told Univision the family is looking to repatriate her niece's remains to Honduras and is looking into how they can help the children petition for asylum so that they can be reunited with their father in California.

'May the children have a future, may the sacrifice of my niece be worth it so that they may be given asylum and have a better life in the United States,' Ríos said.

Paramedics attempt to revive Honduran migrant Yuri Ríos moments after she was brought to shore by a man in Tijuana, Mexico

Yuri Ríos leaves behind two children. Pictured with to her left is her 11-year-old son

Yuri Ríos leaves behind two children. Her 11-year-old son is pictured to the left and her 13-year-old is on the right

Family members of Yuri Ríos are now looking into how they can seek asylum for her two sons so that they can rejoin their father in California

Yuri Ríos is the second Honduran migrant since February who drowned while attempting to reach the United States from Mexico.

Eight-year-old Anderson Gabriel Ramírez died February 18 while trying to follow his parents and sister across the Rio Grande.

Ramírez 'was in the company' of a group of adults on an islet in the middle of the river that serves as a border barrier between Mexico and Texas, but was not able to 'withstand the pounding water, which covered him and kept him submerged for several meters.' 

The boy's father, Alex Ramírez, told Univision that he placed his daughter on the river's shore and attempted to go back for his son, but by then he had already been swept by the freezing river's current. 

In September 2019, Idalia Herrera and her two-year-old son also drowned in the Rio Grande during an ill fated attempt to cross rom Ciudad Acuña, Mexico, to the shores of Del Rio, Texas. 

Mexican officials stand near a spot where paramedics attempted to save the life of 28-year-old Honduran migrant Yuri Ríos, who died Saturday while attempting to swim around a fence at the Tijuana-United States border

The United States for 10 consecutive months has seen an uptick in apprehensions of undocumented immigrants at the border.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, the month of February registered 100,441 apprehension, expulsion, and inadmissible encounters, the most since 104,311 such incidents were reported in June 2019.

Despite an openness towards working with migrants seeking asylum at the southwestern border with Mexico, President Joe Biden on Tuesday begged them not to come because his administration is still not ready to handle the large volume migrants at the border entry points.  

'I can say quite clearly: Don't come over,' said Biden in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos.

'Don't leave your town or city or community.' 

The Biden administration has also been dealing with a rise in unaccompanied migrant children at the border. 

The Border Patrol had more than 4,000 migrant children in its custody as of Sunday. At least 3,000 had been held past the 72-hour limit set by a court order, a U.S. official told AP.

The agency took in an additional 561 on Monday, twice the recent average, according to a second official. 

The number of children crossing by themselves, mostly from Central America, appears to be surging in particular in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. The Border Patrol took in 280 there alone on Monday.

The total of 561 unaccompanied minors from Monday offers a snapshot of how quickly conditions have changed along the border. That was up 60 per cent from the daily average in February, officials said.

In May 2019, during the last surge, the one-day peak was 370 teens and children.