Smugglers abandon migrants in desert after one collapses, dies in triple-digit heat

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – The heat continues killing migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Mexican authorities on Wednesday rescued six migrants suffering from dehydration in the desert across the border from Santa Teresa, New Mexico. A seventh migrant – a male in his 20s from Durango, Mexico – was found dead nearby.

The surviving migrants told Juarez police their companion started feeling ill as smugglers led the group through the desert to the border wall at Santa Teresa in triple-digit heat. The Durango resident collapsed and died on the scene.

A Juarez Civil Protection Department official told a Border Report camera crew the smugglers notified the man’s family of his death but not the police. The smugglers abandoned the other six in the desert and fled.

The official said a relative finally called police, and several vehicles from the municipal and state police, the National Migration Institute, and the Mexican National Guard began a search. The six surviving migrants were found, treated for dehydration, and recovered.

The smugglers remained at large late Wednesday afternoon.

The U.S. Border Patrol and Southern New Mexico firefighters have told Border Report it’s not unusual for smugglers to abandon a migrant who gets injured or can’t keep up with groups they take into the United States illegally.

Eighty-two migrant deaths have been recorded since Oct. 1 north of the border wall in the El Paso Sector of the Border Patrol, which includes all of New Mexico. The most common causes of death are drowning, heat stroke, and injuries related to falls.

Data on migrant fatalities on the Mexican side of the border was not readily available on Wednesday.

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