At least 17 Texas National Guard members have died securing the US southern border — with one drowning in the Rio Grande while trying to save migrants.

The death toll was revealed during an Aug. 20 meeting of Texas’ state House Committee on Defense and Veterans’ Affairs.

Shelia Bailey Taylor, the Texas Military Department director of state administration, was discussing a new state law that provides $500,000 to families of fallen service members deployed under Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star border mission.

The legislation was inspired by the death of Guardsman Bishop Evans, who drowned in April 2022 after jumping into the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass and saving a pair of migrants who were trying to enter the country illegally.