Border Patrol comes to rescue of Mexican teen
Agents are also alerted to body of likely entrant
Brady McCombs

U.S. Border Patrol agents on Monday rescued one teenage boy who was found in critical condition on the Tohono O’odham Reservation and found another man who died northwest of Nogales.

The rescue was triggered by a resident who called the Tohono O’odham police, who then called Border Patrol, said Mike Scioli, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman.

Agents, with the help of a Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine helicopter, found the 17-year-old boy from Chiapas, Mexico, about five miles west of Sells, where he had been reported missing. He was unable to walk because he was suffering from exposure to the elements and extreme dehydration, Scioli said.

They transported him by helicopter to a Tucson hospital, where he is recovering, Scioli said. If he doesn’t have any criminal history, he’ll be given voluntary return to Mexico when he’s recovered, he said.

Monday’s high temperature of 95 degrees was about 14 degrees above average for this time of year, according to the National Weather Service.
Border Patrol agents in the Tucson Sector have rescued 96 people in life-threatening situations since Oct. 1, the beginning of fiscal year 2008, through March, Scioli said. That’s fewer than the 164 such rescues in the same period the year before.

The deceased man was found by a rancher near the town of Ruby, about 20 miles northwest of Nogales in Santa Cruz County. At about noon Monday, the rancher stopped a Border Patrol agent who was driving by and told him about the body, Scioli said.

Agents found the body of a man who had been dead for several days, he said. No positive identification has been made, but officials believe he was an illegal immigrant, said Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada. The area is a popular route for illegal immigrants and drug smugglers, he said.

It is the third body of an illegal border crosser found in Santa Cruz County this year, he said.

From Oct. 1 through the end of March, the bodies of 55 illegal immigrants have been found in Arizona, according to the Pima, Cochise and Yuma County medical examiner’s offices. That’s less than the 66 found in the same time period the year before.
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