Yuma Sector: Two migrants found dead in two days
YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents found two dead migrants in separate locations in Yuma earlier this week.
U.S. Border Patrol said the first incident happened Monday morning when Wellton station agents tracked a group of migrants through the Barry M. Goldwater bombing range. However, they found a dead man later identified as a 40-year-old Mexican national who was miles away from a rescue beacon.
Agents believe the man had been dead for about two weeks.
On Tuesday afternoon, Yuma Sector radio fielded a 911 call from Mexico about a group in need of help south of the Foothills. A caller stated a woman of the group had collapsed and died.
Agents quickly responded to the location and located the group, including the woman. Agents took the migrants into custody and transferred the body of the 20-year-old Guatemalan woman over to the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office coroner.
One of the members of the group was a 16-year-old guide from San Luis, Mexico.
“It doesn’t take much,” said Lenin Padilla, a Border Patrol agent, and program manager assigned to the Yuma Sector Foreign Operations Branch. “Proof of that is the woman. She was only a couple of miles north of the border. It’s hot out there.”
Yuma Sector Chief Patrol Agent Chris T. Clem said this is a tragic example of how smugglers exploit migrants.
“The smugglers have no regard for human life,” Chief Clem said. “Border Patrol agents will continue to do their best to mitigate entries and rescue migrants who need their help.”
Yuma Sector says it's with the Mexican government and other non-government organizations to try to prevent incidents like this from happening.
In May, agents responded to 47 911 calls and rescued 126 migrants. However, Padilla says there are still two migrants who are unaccounted for. Families reported them missing to their respective consulates after they planned to cross the desert into the U.S.
“These were people who were in the desert and were never found,” Padilla said. In the first three days of June, they recovered two bodies and responded to three 911 calls.
“Unfortunately, we are expecting the number of 911 calls to increase as the summer months come,” he said.
