TUCSON, Ariz. – U.S. Border Patrol agents responded to dozens of 911 calls, rescuing nearly 30 migrants throughout southern Arizona this weekend.
Beginning Friday afternoon, Tucson Sector agents were routed or received numerous telephone calls from illegal border crossers claiming to be lost or in need of help in the desert. Many calls were from rugged, desolate mountain areas devoid of paved roads within the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation. Five of the rescue calls were from groups presumably abandoned by a human smuggler.
One Guatemalan woman also called 911 after she was abandoned by her smuggler without food or water in Cochise County. Agents, along with Cochise County Sheriff’s deputies, searched for the lost woman after she provided her location via telephone. Deputies ultimately located the uninjured woman along a remote train track and transferred her to Border Patrol for processing.
All persons rescued will be processed and expelled or removed once they are found fit for travel.