Venezuelan parents watch from home as their son is laid to rest in Texas after drowning

The cries of Liliana Olivero watching from Venezuela through a cellphone pierced through the somber Christian music and gusts of wind as her son’s casket was lowered into the ground.

Gustavo Alfonso Garcia Olivares died at 24, drowning in the Rio Grande not far from where he was buried Thursday at the Maverick County Cemetery in Eagle Pass, a Texas border town of about 30,000 people. About 10 people attended the service, which was streamed live to his parents in Venezuela.

It was the first funeral service for a migrant by Border Vigil, a human rights organization on the U.S.-Mexico border, one of the world’s deadliest.

“Today we’re trying to bring back some of that humanity not just by giving his name but also by having his photo and having his family in the service,” said Amerika Garcia Grewal with Border Vigil, which is supported by Frontera Federation.

It came a day after Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited Eagle Pass, which became a flashpoint between the Biden administration and Texas’ Republican governor, Greg Abbott, over who polices the border and how. The Trump administration and Abbott are closely aligned on border policy.

Border Vigil started in 2023 amid an increase in border crossings that led to many migrant deaths. The International Organization for Migration’s Missing Migrants Project has tallied 6,438 dead and missing on the U.S.-Mexico border since 2014.

The U.S. Border Patrol’s published data goes through the 12-month period that ended Sept. 30, 2022, when 895 bodies were discovered by its own agents and other government agencies.

Garcia Olivares’ parents last saw their son alive in a video shared by a friend showing him crouched in a corner of a fast-moving train heading to Mexico’s northern border in 2023.

Victor Garcia recalled their last conversation: “Dad, I’m going to make it, Dad. Don’t worry because you won’t be in need anymore. I’ll buy Mom a house and I’ll help improve your business.”

He described his son as brave and ambitious, having learned to become a barber at 14. He encouraged his son to go to college, but he decided to seek a life in the United States. His mother never had a chance to say goodbye. Not until Thursday.

The ceremony “was very sentimental, sad, but at the same time we are able to breathe a sigh of relief,” the father said.

Garcia Olivares’ body was swept up in the river and identified through Operation ID, an academic organization that partners with state, federal and international agencies. Although his family preferred to have him buried back home, they could not afford the nearly $9,000 cost.

A church volunteer built the white pine paneled coffin. As the ceremony closed, a backhoe shoveled dirt into the grave and a placard was placed by a simple, white cross near two dozen similar crosses laying nearby in a corner lot of the cemetery near a maintenance shed.

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This story has been updated to correct the name of the organization that supports Border Vigil. It is Frontera Federation, not Fronteras Fund.