Border Patrol rescues eight migrants within 48-hour period

Rescue features Border Search Trauma and Rescue Unit

OCOTILLO, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) - In two separate incidents, the U.S. Border Patrol El Centro Sector rescued eight undocumented individuals in the Jacumba WIlderness region.

At about 1:36 Thursday afternoon, dispatch notified personnel that a group of four illegally-present persons were in distress. Believing one of the people may be dehydrated, agents requested El Centro Sector’s Border Search Trauma and Rescue Unit (BORSTAR).

Emergency medical services was also dispatched to their location. BORSTAR found the group of undocumented migrants around 1:43 p.m., about three miles north of the border and north of Highway 98.

After conducting welfare checks and determining one of the detained persons to indeed be at risk, the Ocotillo Fire Department and BORSTAR provided first aid to the dehydrated individual.

After responding well to treatment, agents determined that no additional medical assistance was needed.

The second incident began early Friday at about 4:10 when California Highway Patrol called the El Centro Sector dispatch about a group of people whom had also illegally crossed into the U.S. They were reportedly without water, lost and now in distress among the mountains.

A Department of Defense U.S. Army Blackhawk also assisting in the search located the lost group at approximately 4:20 a.m. Just over two hours later at about 6:23 a.m., El Centro Sector agents finally found the four-person group about one half mile north of the U.S./Mexico International Boundary.

Agents conducted welfare checks and determined that no medical attention was required.

Due to their Mexican nationality, agents then took the undocumented individuals from both incidents into custody and transported them to the El Centro Sector Processing Center, whom will be processed accordingly.

Since October 2020, El Centro Sector Border Patrol agents have successfully rescued 248 individuals lost or in distress.