El Centro Sector Border Patrol agents and a CBP Air and Marine Operations helicopter aircrew teamed up to rescue five migrants in the Jacumba Wilderness region near the border in California.
El Centro Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gregory K. Bovino tweeted a photo showing the rescue of a small migrant group in the wilderness near the California-Mexico border. The group included three unaccompanied minors.
El Centro Sector communications officials received a 911 call from a local police department regarding a request for assistance in the mountains of the Jacumba Wilderness region. The communications workers relayed the GPS coordinates to Border Patrol agents and an Air and Marine Operations (AMO) aircrew.
Approximately 20 minutes after dispatch, the AMO aircrew located the migrants. The aircrew guided ground-based agents to the location.
The agents conducted medical screenings and determined the five migrants needed no further assistance. The agents also determined the migrants were illegally present in the United States.
The agents identified the migrants as a 26-year-old Honduran male, a 62-year-old Salvadoran woman, an unaccompanied Salvadoran juvenile, and two Guatemalan unaccompanied juveniles. The agents transported the migrants to the El Centro Sector Central Processing Station for additional medical evaluation and processing.
Officials report that El Central agents carried out nearly 200 rescues of people who were lost, in distress, or abandoned by human smugglers.