Dying Migrant Woman Rescued in Arizona Border Mountains

Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents rescued a Guatemalan woman who they found unresponsive in the desert mountains of Arizona. The woman appears to have been abandoned and left to die by human smugglers operating in the area.

Mobile Response Team Agents assigned to the Tucson Sector teamed up with a Customs and Border Protection  (CBP) Air and Marine Operations (AMO)aircrew to rescue a woman found near death last week in the Baboquivari Mountains northwest of the Port of Nogales, Arizona. The agents “provided life-saving medical care” to the Guatemalan woman, CBP officials tweeted.

RESCUED—U.S. Border Patrol agents from the Tucson Sector Mobile Response Team provided life-saving medical care to an unresponsive Guatemalan woman who was lost in Arizona’s Baboquivari Mountains. Agents carried her to an awaiting #AMO helicopter which airlifted her to safety. pic.twitter.com/KCLpNoMsR6

— CBP (@CBP) August 3, 2019

The agents found the woman unresponsive in the heat of the day. After providing primary medical assistance, the AMO aircrew airlifted the woman to a regional hospital.

Elsewhere on the border, Presidio Station agents assigned to the Big Bend Sector assisted a pregnant woman from Honduras after she fell into distress after illegally entering the U.S., Big Bend Sector Border Patrol officials reported.

Agents patrolling the Rio Grande border between Mexico and Texas came upon a pregnant woman in distress. The agents provided IV fluids and transported her to the Big Bend Regional Medical Center in Alpine, Texas, for additional treatment and evaluation.

Big Bend Sector Chief Patrol Agent Matthew J. Hudak said, “Our agents were able to address this emergency situation and administer and secure immediate medical attention for the woman and her unborn child.  This reflects the compassion and dedication that our agents have to securing our nation’s borders and providing the best level of care they can.”

Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on Tuesday that Border Patrol agents carried out more than 4,000 rescues so far this year, Breitbart Texas reported.

“This is who the men and women of the United States Customs and Border Protection are,” the commissioner testified. “They risk their lives every single day to help and protect whoever is in distress.”

“Smugglers openly advertise about a safe and legal journey to the United States,” he explained. “They tell migrants and their families that there is a policy in the United States that anyone who arrives with a child will not be deported. And our laws support that perception.

He said that if there is not a meaningful change in U.S. laws, detention facilities will continue to be overwhelmed while Border Patrol agents are diverted from their primary mission. “Smugglers, like the one who threw the paraplegic man in the Rio Grande, they will continue to profit,” he said.

“Congress must acknowledge this is a crisis and pass meaningful legislation to address the current legal framework,” Morgan concluded in his opening statement to the committee.