Thread: Migrants shift into perilous zone

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php? ... _minuteman

Migrants shift into perilous zone
More immigrants in the west desert could mean more people in trouble and another summer of record deaths.
CLAUDINE LoMONACO
Tucson Citizen
April 23, 2005

Victor Hernandez said a prayer with each drop of prickly pear he squeezed into his sister-in-law's mouth.

"Please, God, let her live," he repeated as he cradled her tiny, unconscious body on the hot desert sand.

Three others from their group of 25 had also collapsed. More were vomiting from dehydration. Nearby, several others huddled around a cell phone they'd wrestled from their smuggler just moments earlier. After many attempts, one of them got through to 911.

"They are dying," he said in a panic. "People are all around me, and they are dying. Please come. Come quickly."

The 23 men and two women had been wandering on the Tohono O'odham Nation for six days. An isolated area the size of Connecticut, it's one of the most popular and deadliest crossing points for immigrants trying to enter the United States illegally.

Together with lands farther west, the area accounted for more than 60 percent of 141 known immigrant deaths that occurred in the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson sector last year, the agency's statistics show.

The Border Patrol has tried to reduce deaths by clamping down on the area with its Arizona Border Control Initiative, which was recently renewed for a second year. The aim is to channel immigrants into less deadly terrain.

At the same time, the volunteer Minuteman Project, which had been patrolling eastern Arizona's border in Cochise County, seems to be directing more immigrants back into the western desert. Since the project began April 1, apprehensions of illegal immigrants have gone up 15 percent in the western desert and are down 12 percent in Cochise County, compared to March.

Minuteman organizer Jim Gilchrist said the shift is exactly what he expected.

"Traffic has gone away from the guarded area to the unguarded area," he said. "If the whole border were sealed, there would be nowhere to go around."

Tucson sector Chief Michael Nicley has said the shift has more to do with the Mexican government directing border crossers around the Minuteman Project to avoid conflicts with potentially armed volunteers.

Whatever the reason, traffic has shifted, and more immigrants in the west desert could mean more people in trouble and another summer of record deaths.

Hernandez, 22, and his sister-in-law, 33-year-old Juana Mendez, are Tzotzil Indians from the southern state of Chiapas.

They hadn't heard about the Minuteman Project or the Border Patrol's effort to clamp down on the area when they decided to cross. They just knew Hernandez's brother, who is Mendez's husband, had crossed through this area three months ago. They planned to take a similar route to join him and work in the United States.

The two left their village of San Juan Chamula by bus two weeks ago. Four days later, they were in Altar, a small town an hour south of Sasabe where many immigrants contract a coyote, or smuggler, to guide them through the desert.

"He said his name was Antonio," Hernandez said. "But who knows what his real name was? He was just a pack of lies."

"Antonio" told them the journey would take two days and they'd need a little food and a gallon of water each.
The tortillas lasted two days and the water a third, but the journey continued a third day and then a fourth.

Temperatures in mid-April usually hover in the low 80s. But by the fourth day of their journey, temperature rose to more than 90 degrees. Hernandez and Mendez, who come from a chilly highland region, had never felt such heat.

Mendez and others started to vomit. The group began eating prickly pear to survive.

The smuggler kept saying it was just a little farther, but the group knew it was lost. They stopped by what looked like a dirt road and waited for help.

None came. On the sixth day, somebody heard the coyote say something about leaving.

"That's when we knew we had to act," Hernandez said.

The group knew the coyote carried a cell phone and encircled him.

"Give us your phone or we will take it," they said.

The man handed it over and ran off.

Just then, Mendez, who had been sitting, collapsed unconscious. Three others did as well. Others started frantically punching 911.

About 1 o'clock Monday afternoon, they finally got through. They were transferred to Johnny Bernal, who works with BORSTAR, the Border Patrol's search-and-rescue team.

Bernal heard the cell phone cut in and out as the battery died and raced to identify the group's location.

It turns out it was 60 miles from the border at the base of the Silver Bell Mountains.

By the time the first helicopter arrived, two of the unconscious men had stopped breathing.

A BORSTAR agent managed to restart their breathing and stabilize them. Backup helicopters arrived soon after and took them, along with Mendez, her brother-in-law, and the other unconscious individual, to Tucson hospitals. During the search, a Border Patrol helicopter found another endangered group several miles to the south. They'd alerted agents by writing "HELP" on the ground.

In all, BORSTAR agents rescued 77 people Monday.

Most were taken to a triage center in Queens Well on the reservation before being voluntarily returned to Mexico.

Agent Ron Bellavia coordinated the rescue effort.

"These are very lucky people," he said. "They could have died so easily. I'm just glad we were there."

Mendez, who is 4 feet 8 inches tall and speaks just Tzotzil, said she remembers little after she started vomiting on the fourth day. Now out of the hospital, as are the others, she's glad to be alive. She'd like to see her husband and go home.

Life is precious.Empathy for their peril-yes.Sympathy for putting so much value on coming here illegally and not using some sense-definitely not.