Congressman ‘Shocked’ to Find Dead Body on Border Tour

Roll Call - Rep. Leonard Lance was on a routine congressional tour of the Texas-Mexico border last week when the trip became a morbid reminder of the stakes involved in an immigration overhaul.

Along with Reps. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and Kevin Yoder, R-Kan., the New Jersey Republican discovered a dead body floating face down in the Rio Grande.

“I’ve never seen a dead body in a violent situation,” Lance told CQ Roll Call via phone Thursday. “It shocked me.”

The trio of lawmakers were riding on border patrol boats along the dividing river as part of the last leg of a three-day border security tour when the convoy spotted the lifeless body of a Honduran man believed to have been killed in the ongoing Mexican drug wars.


Lance was on one boat while McCaul and Yoder were on another. All the congressmen were wearing bulletproof vests, as the area they were patrolling was a “relatively dangerous region,” according to Lance.

“It was a vivid reminder that we have to secure our border and do it as quickly as possible,” Lance said Thursday.   More