Migrant Rescued in Arizona Desert After Being Abandoned Without Food, Water

A San Diego Sector Air and Marine Operations aircrew and Border Patrol agents team up to r
File Photo: U.S. Customs and Border Protection/San Diego Sector

Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents and an Air and Marine Operations aircrew teamed up to rescue a migrant who became lost after being abandoned by human smugglers without food or water.

On Monday, Yuma Sector Border Patrol officials received information from Mexican emergency officials about a man lost in the desert on the U.S. side of the Arizona border. The man said he entered the U.S. from the Mexican Federal Highway 2 and had no food or water, according to Yuma Sector officials. Initial attempts to contact the man were unsuccessful.

Border Patrol agents dispatched a BORSTAR rescue team and an AMO aircrew to search for the man. The agents eventually re-established communications. The AMO aircrew with BORSTAR operators and Welton Station Border Patrol agents eventually located the man. He was unable to walk out of the desert hillside area, officials said.

A Border Patrol Emergency Medical Technician evaluated the 34-year-old Mexican national and determined him to be in good health except for being exhausted.

Officials said the man is being charged with immigration violations. They did not provide any previous immigration history.

Under new policies put in place by the Trump Administration, Mexican nationals are deported deep into the interior regions of Mexico instead of just being put back across the border.

In February, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials announced more than 1,000 Mexican migrants had been returned to Mexico’s interior, Breitbart Texas reported.

During the peak of the 2019 migrant border crisis, the Trump Administration negotiated an agreement to return Mexican nationals found illegally present in the United States into Mexico’s interior, according to information obtained from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials. Under previous agreements, Mexican nationals were simply returned to across the border–making it easy to simply re-cross elsewhere.

Under the Interior Repatriation Initiative (IRI) joint agreement, U.S. officials returned more than 1,000 Mexican nationals illegally present in the U.S. to the interior of Mexico instead of a trans-border removal.

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.

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