Thread: TX - Border Patrol prepares for deadly summer

Posted: Thursday, May 26, 2016 10:00 am
By KRISTIAN HERNANDEZ Staff Writer

FALFURRIAS — The sun-bleached white bones of migrants found by ranchers every year are evidence of the deadly business of human smuggling in the ranchlands of Brooks County.

During the next few months, when the deviousness of smugglers, or “coyotes,” combines with the unforgiving summer heat, things can become even deadlier for illegal crossers attempting to evade detection by law enforcement, officials say.

With the summer right around the corner and migrant deaths set to surpass last year’s numbers, U.S. Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley Sector has stepped up its efforts to save lives.

“Every year as the hot summer months approach, we ramp up the efforts … in these remote ranchlands surrounding the Falfurrias and Sarita checkpoints,” Sector Chief Manuel Padilla Jr. said after a mock rescue operation Wednesday inside a private ranch north of the checkpoint.

“As smugglers move the migrants into the U.S. by circumventing these checkpoints, they endanger them by taking them through rugged areas with little or no water at all,” he added.

According to Webb County Medical Examiner Corinne Stern, who handles about 90 percent of migrant death cases in South Texas, the No. 1 cause of death for these migrants is dehydration.

So far this year, 68 migrant bodies or remains have been recovered in the Rio Grande Valley Sector. Border Patrol agents also have rescued 549 people, some of them in distress after being abandoned by their smuggler. Border Patrol statistics show agents recovered a total of 69 migrant bodies or remains and rescued 714 people during the previous fiscal year.

Part of the Border Patrol’s efforts to deter migrant deaths includes an annual brush walk with members of the media to give them a first-hand account of the hostile terrain and the daily challenges faced by agents when tracking illegal crossers in Brooks County.

“The purpose of today’s event was to give you an idea of what an immigrant goes through at the hands of a smuggler,” Border Patrol Spokeswoman Marlene Castro said. “But to be honest, none of us will ever really know what it is to traverse this type of terrain in this environment without adequate food or water.

“We’ll never really know the fear that a woman or young girl feels when that smuggler gives her a second look. We’ll never experience the hopelessness of someone who’s been left behind, abandoned by a smuggler because he’s too slow.”

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/new...ce6ddf199.html

A very scary place. Does our government support these towns along the border or just certain areas? Not sure why federal government does not utilize the United States Armed Forces and their technology to survey the crossings, meet, greet and turn back illegals and arrest and hold smugglers. I must be so naïve and a complete idiot for thinking that.