2001, May ~24, Illegal immigrants abandoned by smugglers die of heat, AZ desert–14

–14  Casa Grande Dispatch, AZ. “14 border crossers die in desert.” 5-24-2001, p. 1.

–14  Casa Grande Dispatch, AZ. “U.S., Mexican officials huddle over border policy.” 6-7-2001

–14  Cliniclegal.org. Chaos on…U.S.-Mexico Border: A Report on Migrant Crossing Deaths…

–14  The Sun, Yuma, AZ.  “Yuma-area agencies…smooth…response to tragedy.” 8-8-2006, 1.

 

Narrative Information

 

May 24: “Yuma (AP) — Fourteen illegal immigrants have died…Thursday, five days after smugglers abandoned them in the blistering heat of the Arizona desert, the Border Patrol said.  The death toll was a record for immigrant smuggling in Arizona….

 

“Meanwhile, Ruben Beltran, the Mexican consul general in Phoenix, said a man was arrested near the border in Sonora and was believed to be one of the smugglers.  He faces possible charges of immigrant smuggling and may also face murder charges.

 

“Twelve survivors were found as rescuers used helicopters and four-wheel-drive vehicles to search for the missing Mexican immigrants….The survivors were hospitalized for heat exhaustion and severe dehydration.  Some were unconscious when found. The 12th immigrant, found after dawn Thursday, was in critical condition and may not survive, said Dr. David Haynes, who treated the immigrants. He said the survivors had suffered kidney damage because of the dehydration and that some would have lifelong problems. ‘They would all be dead if they hadn’t been brought in to the hospital when they were,’ said Haynes. ‘For at least two of them, it was a matter of hours.’ He said one man told doctors he drank his own urine and had also tried to drink cactus juice. Several immigrants said they had been without food or water for days.  Haynes said the survivors looked shriveled. ‘Have you ever seen a mummy from ancient Egypt?’ Haynes said. ‘That gives you an idea.’ Hospital officials said nine of the survivors were in fair condition and will be hospitalized for at least a week. Two were in serious condition.  Haynes said the men were being rehydrated with IVs.

 

“Survivors said the immigrants, all of them adult men or teen-age boys were smuggled into the United States on Saturday east of Yuma in the’ rugged terrain of the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. Mexican officials said the immigrants were from the Mexican states of Veracruz and Guerrero. The smugglers left them in the desert, promising to return with water and instructing them to walk for ‘a couple of hours’ to a highway. But they never came back. The highway was more than 50 miles from where the men were abandoned

 

“The Border Patrol began its search Wednesday after five sunburned survivors found agents and sought help. Temperatures climbed as high as 115 degrees. Search teams were operating out of Wellton, 130 miles southwest of Phoenix. The bodies were discovered about 25 miles from the Mexican border.

 

“It was the worst tragedy in Arizona history involving illegal immigrants, Border Patrol spokesman Rene Noriega said in Tucson. In July 1980, 13 Salvadorans died in the desert Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument 50 mile’s east of the current deaths.

 

“The worst known crossing tragedy on the entire U.S.-Mexican border during the past 20 years was the deaths of 18 illegal immigrants who suffocated in a boxcar in Sierra Blanca, Texas, 90 miles east of El Paso.

 

“”This is evidence of the callousness and the ruthlessness of these smugglers who have now taken human lives to turn them into a commodity,” Noriega said.

 

“Southern Arizona became a popular crossing point for illegal immigrants in the 1990s, after crackdowns in California and Texas pushed more people to try to enter the country through remote and dangerous areas.”  (Casa Grande Dispatch, AZ. “14 border crossers die in desert.” 5-24-2001, p. 1.)

 

Cliniclegal.org: “On the morning of May 24, 2001, the Border Patrol encountered four migrants wandering on the “Camino del Diablo” (Devil’s Path) east of Yuma, Arizona, in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. The four had broken away from a party of 26 as they tried to cross the desert in 115 degree temperatures. Over the next 24 hours, search and rescue teams discovered six clusters of migrants from this group, 14 of them dead or near death. Pilots found 17 migrants 30 to 40 miles north of the border and just as far from Interstate 8.  They had torn off their clothing, clawed holes in the ground, ripped open cactuses, and resorted to drinking their own urine. According to a treating physician, the survivors looked like mummies, their skin shriveled, burnt dark and covered in cactus spines. They suffered from severe dehydration and kidney damage.

 

“Most of the migrants, including 12 of the 14 who died, came from Veracruz, Mexico. They met

with a smaller group from Guerrero, in Sonoyta, Sonora near the U.S. border. An estimated 1,500 migrants arrive each day in Sonoyta. The smugglers told the migrants to pack lightly and to bring only one jug of water.  In Cabeza Prieta, they were told that they had only a short walk remaining.  In fact, 70 deadly miles stretched ahead of them.  Eleven of the survivors have been given temporary work permits, which will allow them to testify at the trial of the 20 year-old smuggler from Sonoyta.

 

“Raymundo Barreda and his 15-year-old son from the mountain village of El Equimite in Veracruz wanted to work in the United States. Both died in the desert. So did Mario Castillo, a 25-year-old father of two, a four-year-old son and five-year-old daughter, from the village of Cuatro Caminos in Veracruz. Mr. Castillo, who earned 35 pesos a day (less than $4) 83 working on coffee and citrus plantations, hoped to find a job that would allow him to finish work on his cinder-block house. He took out a $1,200 loan to pay the smuggler for this trip, which his widow must pay.” (Cliniclegal.org. Chaos on the U.S.-Mexico Border: A Report on Migrant Crossing Deaths, Immigrant Families and Subsistence-Level Laborers, p. 10)

 

Aug 8: “….The last major local event involving deaths of illegal immigrants attempting to cross the border was in 2001, when 14 illegal immigrants died in the heat of the Arizona desert after they were abandoned by smugglers. (The Sun, Yuma, AZ. “Yuma-area agencies make smooth coordinated response to tragedy.” 8-8-2006, p. 6.)

 

Sources

 

Casa Grande Dispatch, AZ. “14 border crossers die in desert.” 5-24-2001, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/casa-grande-dispatch/2001-05-24/page-1/

 

Casa Grande Dispatch, AZ. “U.S., Mexican officials huddle over border policy.” 6-7-2001, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/casa-grande-dispatch/2001-06-07/page-2/

 

Cliniclegal.org. Chaos on the U.S.-Mexico Border: A Report on Migrant Crossing Deaths, Immigrant Families and Subsistence-Level Laborers. Accessed 2-6-2012 at: http://cliniclegal.org/sites/default/files/atrisk5_0.pdf

 

The Sun (James Gilbert), Yuma, AZ.  “Yuma-area agencies make smooth, coordinated response to tragedy.” 8-8-2006, pp. 1 and 6. Accessed 2-6-2012 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=181945753&sterm=response+to+tragedy