Thread: Border Patrol saves Guatemalan, takes him into custody

Published: 08.11.2007
Border Patrol saves Guatemalan, takes him into custody
DAVID L. TEIBEL
Tucson Citizen
A U.S. Border Patrol agent answering a call to an emergency beacon in a remote desert area found a dying man and saved him, a Border Patrol spokesman said.
The 27-year-old, from Guatemala, was suffering from the heat and was severely dehydrated.
The man, who was not named, had crossed into the U.S. with a group of immigrants, probably near San Miguel about 30 miles south of Sells, said Border Patrol Agent Michael Scioli.
"He was severely dehydrated, being in such horrible condition he just couldn't keep up with the group," Scioli said.
He made his way to an emergency beacon and pushed the button, setting it off around 7:40 p.m. and alerting agents someone needed help, Scioli said.
There are 22 such beacons scattered along desolate, rugged immigrant trails in southern Arizona. They are mounted on very tall poles, Scioli said.

He said pushing a button on the pole sets off the strobe and sends a radio signal to a border patrol dispatch center.
Instructions on how to activate the beacon are printed on them in English, Spanish and the Tohono O'odham language, Scioli said.
When the man pushed the button, Scioli said, an agent with BORSTAR, the Border Patrol Search, Trauma and Rescue unit, was sent to the beacon about 5 miles south of State Route 86 and 15 miles east of Sells.
The agent, a certified emergency medical technician, found the man about about 8:40 p.m., gave him fluids intraveneously, and the man recovered, Scioli said, adding the man was taken into custody for hearings on returning him to Guatemala.
From Oct. 1, the beginning of the federal fiscal year, to July 31, the last date for which figures are available, Border Patrol agents have rescued 493 suspected illegal immigrants in Southern Arizona deserts, Scioli said.
Most of them suffered from the desert's heat, but others had sustained injuries and some had gotten separated from their group and were lost, he said.
Illegal immigrants streaming across the Mexican border into the United States often succumb to the Southern Arizona desert heat.
Since Oct. 1, the bodies of at least 148 suspected illegal entrants have been found in southern Arizona's deserts, according to Border Patrol and Tucson Citizen records.
As of 1:30 p.m. Friday, the last body found was that of a man from Mexico found on Tuesday in a culvert about three miles south of Three Points, the Tucson Citizen reported earlier this week.
For more border coverage, go to www.tucsoncitizen.com/border.
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/all_headlines/59840

I wonder what lesson he will take back with him from this? Will he realize how lucky he was that Americans are willing to fund this so that his life could have ben spared? Will he be grateful that our law enforcement (Border Patrol) are nothing like those he encoutered in Mexico, or maybe even his own country?

We can only hope that he saw through his own lust to take the American dream for himself that doing this nearly cost him his life, and he was lucky enough to have encountered the generosity and kindness of Americans that would care for him, although he would have to return to his own land.

You're so right Liz.
If this would have happened to him on the Mexican side he would have died.

Wish these people would understand that they had the fortune, even though they were caught, to be on the American side when they were. Given emergency help when needed, water, food and a place to lay their heads while they were in the process of being deported, as well as a comfortable ride home too.

No other country in their realm would have done that.