The resources of the Border Patrol to respond to emergencies in the desert are increasingly limited because they have to attend the time the massive arrival of Central Americans seeking asylum. Migrants crossing the Arizona border risk their lives, suffer fractures from falls on steep hills, severe dehydration or snake bites, and not everyone is lucky enough to be rescued. This was what Univision Noticias found on a tour of the area.
NOGALES, Mexico.- The desert that the Guerrero of Octavio Pastrana met 28 years ago, when he crossed illegally to the United States for the first time, is no longer the same. Two weeks ago, he received a harder, more guarded border trying to reunite with his family in California after deportation. He walked three days and two nights through the arid roads and mountains of Arizona. His feet could not stand it anymore, he ran out of water and no food. The 'coyotes' did not care and left him there.
"The guides left me, I could not walk any more," says Pastrana, who lived more than two decades in Los Angeles, where his wife and two children, ages 13 and 26, are. "I was able to walk little by little until I hit a road, I went to bed, I dialed 911 and Migration came."
When removing his shoes, this man saw the severity of his injuries: his socks were stuck a layer of skin from the soles of his feet. "I looked closely at the death," says who in the US kept his family working as a carpenter, until a traffic violation left him facing an expulsion process. He thought it would be easy to get back to his people, but he was wrong.
In the custody of the Border Patrol, after his rescue in the desert, he found no relief. He says he did not receive medical attention until he arrived at the general hospital in Nogales, Mexico, where he now recovers using crutches and taking antibiotics.
"I showed them how I was and 'La Migra' did not listen to me (...) It feels like an animal," he claims in a choked voice. "At night they give me nightmares, like I'm dying, like I'm drowning."
Pastrana shares her experience in front of the dining room of the nonprofit organization Kino Border Initiative, whose director, priest Sean Carroll, says he has heard several similar complaints.
"What this migrant says is consistent with what has happened in recent years," says Carroll. "There is a pattern of medical neglect of both the Border Patrol and ICE (Immigration and Customs Service), for several years," the father insists.