9-Year-Old Migrant Child Dies After Crossing Border into Arizona Desert with Mother

A nine-year-old migrant child died in an Arizona hospital after succumbing to heat-related organ failure. The little boy crossed the border into the Arizona desert with his mother and sibling where he suffered the effects of the intense heat.

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call at approximately 9:40 p.m. on the evening of June 15 from a female migrant lost in the desert with two children, according to information released by CBP officials on June 30. The dispatcher connected the call to Tucson Sector Border Patrol officials, who launched a search and rescue operation.

The woman told the agents her son was experiencing seizures after they crossed the border from Mexico. Agents used GPS information from the phone and alerted Nogales Station agents.

A National Guard helicopter crew located the family at approximately 10:02 p.m. and provided updated information to responding agents and EMS crews. Three minutes later, EMS crews from the Tuback Fire Department arrived on foot and located the family by about 10:17 p.m.

The EMS crew assessed the child by checking for broken bones and bleeding. The first responders then picked up the child and carried him toward a waiting ambulance and Border Patrol agent who arrived on foot.

They continued carrying the child until they came in contact with an agent on an all-terrain vehicle at about 10:31 p.m. The agent transported the child and a fire department EMT to the awaiting ambulance by about 10:41.

EMT crews on the ambulance began administering IV fluids and transported the child to the Northwest Medical Senter in Sahuarita, Arizona. They arrived at the hospital at about 10:54 p.m.

Agents interviewed the mother who explained that she and her two sons crossed the border with an unknown male on June 15 at about 2 a.m. She said her son had no prior medical conditions before exposure to the Arizona desert heat. She said they had been without water for about an hour and a half when he began exhibiting the symptoms that caused her to call for help.

Agents released the mother and her children from Border Patrol custody shortly after the interview.

Doctors diagnosed the little boy with multiple organ failure and placed him on life support at about 7:24 p.m. on June 15. He succumbed to his medical condition on June 17 at approximately 5:43 p.m. He was pronounced deceased at about 8:44 p.m.