Migrant Rescued from California Wilderness Mountains near Border

El Centro Sector Border Patrol agents rescued a lost migrant in the Jacumba Wilderness near the California border with Mexico. The rescue occurred shortly before the Christmas holiday weekend after local dispatchers received a distress call from the lost Salvadoran.

Agents assigned to the El Centro Border Patrol station on December 21 received a notification from local dispatchers regarding a migrant who reported being lost in the Jacumba Wilderness near Ocotillo, California. The dispatchers provided the caller’s GPS information and agents launched a search and rescue operation, according to information obtained from El Centro Sector Border Patrol officials.

Approximately one hour after the search began, agents found the lost migrant approximately two miles north of the U.S.-Mexico Border. The agents performed a medical screening and determined the migrant needed no medical assistance.

The agents identified the man as a 44-year-old Salvadoran migrant who had no credentials to be legally present in the United States. The agents then transported the man to the El Centro Sector Processing Center where they conducted additional medical screening and processing under CBP guidelines.

Sector officials report their agents carried out 66 migrant rescues so far this fiscal year which began on October 1. The agents found migrants who were lost, in distress, or who were abandoned by human smugglers.