U.S.-Mexico Effort Leads to Rescue of 8 Migrants in California near Border

An El Centro Sector Border Patrol Horse Patrol Unit rescued eight migrants who became lost in the desert after illegally crossing from Mexico. The rescue of the four adults and four minors came from the successful coordination of efforts between the Government of Mexico and U.S. Border Patrol.

Shortly after midnight on Monday morning, El Centro Sector dispatchers received a call from the Mexicali Police Department in Mexico. Mexican officials reported a group of lost migrants who were in distress. The Mexican dispatchers relayed GPS coordinates and the cell phone number of the migrants, according to information obtained from El Centro Sector officials.

The Border Patrol dispatchers learned the group consisted of four adults and four minor children. The group had run out of water after becoming lost. One of the migrants reportedly had a fever.

Dispatchers notified Border Patrol agents and a CBP Air and Marine Operations helicopter crew to begin the search and rescue operation. About 10 minutes later, the aircrew located the lost migrants and guided a Horse Patrol Unit to the location.

The horse-mounted agents arrived on the scene at about 1:00 a.m. and found all eight of the lost migrants, officials stated. They found the group approximately 100 feet north of the U.S.-Mexico Border. The entire search and rescue operation took less than a half-hour from dispatchers receiving the call to agents being with the migrants.

The agents identified all of the migrants as Honduran nationals. After conducting welfare checks on the migrants, the agents guided them to Border Patrol vehicles. The agents transported the migrants to the El Centro Sector Processing Center for further medical evaluation and processing.

El Centro Sector officials reported rescued 275 migrants who were lost or in distress so far this fiscal year.