TUCSON – U.S. Border Patrol agents are responding to numerous 911 calls as the Arizona desert bakes under unrelenting and record-setting heat. On Wednesday, agents added one more illegal migrant to the tally of those rescued since Friday, August 7.
Agents rescued nearly 30 migrants throughout southern Arizona just this past weekend.
Just in from the field: #BORSTAR Agents assess a border crosser's condition after they rescued him this morning. He dialed 911 to ask for help. #BorderPatrol saves lives. @CBP @USBPChief pic.twitter.com/jlskpUkyLk
— Roy D. Villareal (@USBPChiefTCA) August 12, 2020
On Friday afternoon, Tucson Sector agents responded to 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, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Five of the rescue calls were from groups presumably abandoned by a human smuggler.
After she was abandoned by her smuggler without food or water in Cochise County, one Guatemalan woman also called 911. 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.