14 Illegal Immigrants Die at Ariz. Border
W E L L T O N, Ariz., May 24 -- Fourteen illegal immigrants have died andat least three others were missing today, five days aftersmugglers abandoned them in the blistering heat of the Arizonadesert, the Border Patrol said.
Rescuers used helicopters and four-wheel-drive vehicles earlytoday to search for the missing Mexican immigrants. They earlierfound 11 survivors, who were hospitalized for heat exhaustion andsevere dehydration. Some were unconscious when found.
Searchers had found 11 bodies Wednesday, and one immigrant dieden route to a hospital. Near midnight, searchers found anadditional body, then found one more around 5 a.m., Border Patrolspokesman Maurice Moore said in Yuma.
The assistant chief for the Yuma sector said footprintsindicated that three others remained missing. Originally agents hadthought four were missing, rather than five.
‘The Middle of Nowhere’
"We intend to work this until we've made sure that there's noone left out there," Moore said. "It's in the middle of nowherethere."
Survivors said the group, some of them said to be from theMexican state of Veracruz, was smuggled into the United States onSaturday east of Yuma in the rugged terrain of the Cabeza PrietaNational Wildlife Refuge. The smugglers left them there, promisingto return with water and instructing them to walk for "a couple ofhours" to a highway.
But they never came back. The highway was more than 50 milesfrom where they were abandoned.
The Border Patrol began its search Wednesday after fivesunburned survivors found agents and sought help. As temperaturesclimbed as high as 115 degrees, searchers rescued six moreimmigrants and discovered the bodies of 11 people. A 12th persondied on the way to the hospital.
Search teams were operating out of Wellton, 130 miles southwestof Phoenix. The bodies were discovered about 25 miles from theMexican border.
Worst Border Tragedy in 20 Years
The 14 immigrants who succumbed to exposure made up the largestgroup of border crossers to die in Arizona in more than 20 years.In July 1980, 13 Salvadorans died.
Related Stories
ABC News Live