Border Patrol aids illegal entrant hurt in fall, 2 more lost in desert
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 09.27.2008
Border Patrol agents provided medical treatment Thursday and Friday to three illegal immigrants found in distress.
At10:30 p.m. Thursday, about 500 feet east of the Douglas Port of Entry, agents spotted a man who had fallen from the border fence and hurt his knee, said Rob Daniels, the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector spokesman.
Agents called the Douglas Fire Department, and an ambulance took the man, 32, of Mexico to Southeast Arizona Medical Center in Douglas. He had substantial damage to his knee, and surgery was recommended, Daniels said. He was moved to St. Mary's Hospital in Tucson.
The other two incidents occurred on the Tohono O'odham Reservation. On Thursday at 9:30 p.m., a worker from a nursing home called Tohono O'odham police about a person in distress. Police contacted the Border Patrol, which sent an agent.
The agent found a man from Veracruz, Mexico, who said he had entered the country illegally and had been walking for eight days, Daniels said. He said he had run out of food and water. Agents determined he was severely dehydrated and took him to the hospital in Sells.
He was treated and released, then voluntarily returned.
The second rescue occurred Friday at 1:30 a.m. when a Border Patrol agent apprehended an 18-year Guatemalan who said he was lost in the desert, Daniels said. He was complaining of hunger and pain, and his feet were injured.
An emergency medical services team from Sells treated the man for his injuries and took him to the hospital in Sells for further treatment, Daniels said.
From October through August, agents in the Tucson Sector rescued 418 illegal immigrants in 127 incidents, down from 557 people in 178 incidents through the same time period last year, agency figures show.
â—