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 News from Around the Americas | August 2007 
13 More Migrants Rescued
 Louie Gilot - El Paso Times
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Border Patrol agents rescued 13 migrants in the El Paso sector in the past two days, continuing a weeklong trend.
Monday morning, agents from the Deming, N.M., station saved 12 people abandoned in the desert by a smuggler. Early Tuesday, agents pulled a 26-year-old woman, identified as Selene Martínez Mijares, from the Mexican state of Zacatecas, out of the American Canal east of Asarco.
Border Patrol officials said the woman and another migrant were following their smuggler on a narrow concrete lip to sneak around the canal when she lost her footing and fell into the water.
"She was holding on to a small bush that was growing in a crack in the canal. She didn't want to let go of the bush to grab on to the rope so one agent lay down on the side of the canal and held on to her, keeping her head out of the water while another agent grabbed her hand to pull her out," said Patrick Berry, Border Patrol spokesman. "These were very heroic actions on the part of our agents."
The women were to be returned to Mexico later Tuesday.
Their smuggler, a juvenile from Mexico, ran away.
Last week, Border Patrol agents rescued six migrants from the canal, including two children, and recovered one dead body in three different incidents.
The New Mexico rescue occurred after Border Patrol agents caught a Mexican immigrant smuggler 14 miles west of Deming. The smuggler told agents he had left a group of 11 Guatemalans and one Mexican in the desert and that the group was in distress.
Customs and Border Protection officials were sent in search of the group and the immigrants were found three hours later, Border Patrol officials said.
Three Guatemalan immigrants were severely dehydrated. Two of the immigrants were women, including a juvenile.
The smuggler will be prosecuted, officials said, and the immigrants will be deported.
Border Patrol agents rescued 78 people in the El Paso sector between Oct. 1, 2006, the beginning of the fiscal year, and June 30 this year, including 52 people in the Deming area. Twenty-one migrants have died this year in the El Paso sector, including 11 who drowned in canals, officials said.
Louie Gilot may be reached at lgilot@elpasotimes.com |
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