Border Patrol agents and Brooks County Sheriff’s Office Deputies responded to a call about a deceased migrant found on a ranch in South Texas. The Mexican migrant is the 35th person to die in this single Texas county located about 80 miles north of the U.S.- Mexico border.
Brooks County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Rolando Gutierrez teamed up with Border Patrol agents from the Falfurrias Station on August 27 to respond to a call about a deceased migrant on a ranch located west of Falfurrias on U.S. Highway 285, according to information provided to Breitbart Texas by sheriff’s office officials. The area is a known pick-up area where human smugglers meet up with migrants who have successfully marched around the Falfurrias Border Patrol checkpoint located on U.S. Highway 281.
The agents and Deputy Gutierrez entered one ranch and traveled more than 5 miles to reach the ranch were the migrant’s body had been found. The terrain in the area is extremely soft sand that makes driving and walking extremely difficult.
Upon arrival at the scene, Deputy Gutierrez observed the body of the deceased migrant lying face up on the ground in an area of dense thorny brush. The deputy observed the body was swollen to the point of being close to popping.
A local justice of the peace made the declaration of death and the deputy began to search for information about the deceased migrant.
Documents found in the decedent’s wallet identified him as a 30-year-old Mexican national, Gildardo Flores-Perez, from Hidalgo, Mexico. Also in the migrant’s possession was $52 in U.S. currency, a silver pocket knife, and a yellow lighter.
Flores-Perez was wearing blue jeans and a grey pullover shirt with a Coke logo on the front. He was also wearing brown work boots, the death report indicated.
It is likely that the decedent was traveling with a group of migrants led by a human smuggler familiar with the smuggling route. He appears to have been abandoned after falling victim to the heat, lack of water, and the hazardous walking conditions.
Flores-Perez is the 35 migrant to be found dead in Brooks County.
“What happens to these people is horrible,” Brooks County Sheriff Benny Martinez told Breitbart Texas in a recent phone interview.
In Brooks County, the migrants are frequently left by themselves when they become injured, dehydrated, suffer heat exhaustion, or for any other reason cannot keep up, the sheriff explained. “Often their own family members are forced to leave their loved one behind by these callous human smugglers,” Marinez said.
“It is the false compassion of open borders that lead to the deaths of these illegal immigrants and other abuses we find out about,” the sheriff explained. “These people are abused all along the smuggling pipeline. It comes to a head here in my county where they are often left to die while being smuggled around the Border Patrol’s checkpoint.”
So far this year, at least 276 migrants lost their lives after or during illegal border crossing attempts along the entire U.S.-Mexico border, according to the Missing Migrant Project. Despite being located approximately 80 miles from the border, Brooks County accounts for 13 percent of those deaths. Nearly 90 migrants have been found dead in the Rio Grande Valley Sector and about 175 throughout Texas.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.
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