Border Patrol rescues 77 immigrants in desert Associated Press
Apr. 20, 2005 07:30 AM
TUCSON - U.S. Border Patrol agents rescued nearly 80 undocumented immigrants in the desert after they overtook their smuggler and used his cellphone to call for help.
The 77 men, women and children were split into two groups, one of which wrote "HELP" in the sand to aid a search helicopter locate them, authorities said.
The immigrants had been traveling for about five days when many of them became sick and could not go on, said Rob Daniels, a Border Patrol spokesman.
When their guide was going to abandon them Monday, some of the immigrants ganged up on him and took away a phone they knew he was carrying and called 911.
The caller was able to provide agents with enough information to locate them in the desert north of the Village of San Pedro, on the Tohono O'odham reservation near the Silver Bell Mine.
Of the 77 immigrants, four were taken by ambulance to Sells for treatment.
Agents were not able to find the smuggler, Daniels said.
They should have dropped them at a Mexican hospital. There's no reason to make me subsidize their criminal activity.