Mexican Patrol Helps Out 'Migrantes'

Mexican patrol helps out 'migrantes'
By Deborah Bulkeley
Deseret Morning News
AGUA PRIETA, Mexico — Ask Carlos A. Zozaya Moreno if the "migrantes" crossing the Sonoran desert are dangerous and he'll laugh and shake his head.
Hector Cordova, front, and Carlos A. Zozaya Moreno from Grupo Beta, a Mexican government agency, check for footprints in Sonora. Moreno, an agent with Grupo Beta, Mexico's government agency charged with protecting the human rights of migrants, listens to country music as he drives his orange pickup truck through the wilderness just south of Arizona. He's looking for signs of migrants and keeping an eye on members of the Minuteman Project, a monthlong U.S. civilian effort to watch the border and report crossers to Border Patrol. Another Grupo Beta agent, Julio Cesar Cancino, says his job is simple — to provide migrants with food, water and, if needed, a ride back to the city for medical attention. "The migrants only want to work," he said. Unlike many of the minutemen, yards away on the other side of a barbed wire fence marking the border, the Grupo Beta agents aren't armed. When asked what the chances are of finding any migrants today, the agents reply, very slim. Agent Hector Salazar said the minutemen sitting just across the border have deterred some migrants and diverted routes of "coyotes," or immigrant smugglers, but there are still people trying to cross the border here. "They don't read newspapers or watch TV," he said. "They don't know about the minutemen." The U.S. Border Patrol attributes the decreased attempts at border crossing to increased activity in the area by Mexican authorities. On this day, the Grupo Beta agents start hiking at a spot with a water container marked with a blue flag, proceed past the remnants of a camp, and continue as the path narrows. They're following a trail of footprints, abandoned water bottles and tuna cans. The path becomes just wide enough for one person at a time as it drops into a winding 6-foot ravine. The agents eventually climb out of the ravine, following the trail through twists of brambles. The migrants, they say, travel mostly at night without the aid of a flashlight.
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It's hard to keep up with the agents as they move along, in and out of the ravines, ducking below low-hanging branches. The terrain is at times sandy, sometimes rocky. On this April day, it's 80 degrees at noon. Critics of Grupo Beta say they are helping people illegally enter the United States. Alex Segura, a minuteman and board member of Utahns for Immigration Reform and Enforcement, said booklets that Grupo Beta agents give to those attempting to cross the border suggest they're doing more than providing humanitarian aid. "The whole bottom line of the whole survival guide is to help them survive their way into this country," he said. "We know their government is actually encouraging" illegal immigration. The booklets warn about the dangers of crossing the border and provide information about safe passage and their rights if detained in the United States. Another booklet, designed for those from countries other than Mexico, provides information about Mexican laws. Kat Rodriguez, spokeswoman for Coalici—n de Derechos Humanos in Tucson, Ariz., said most immigrants walk some 75 miles across the desert, a day or more of that before they cross the border. While the minutemen accuse Grupo Beta of aiding and abetting illegal immigration, Rodriguez sees it another way — they're helping people survive.
"The people have made a decision they are coming," she said. "To say the guide is promoting migration is to say handing someone a first-aid kit is promoting them to go out and get hurt. . . . All you can do is offer them as much as you can to prevent them from getting hurt."
Carlos A. Zozaya Moreno, left, Hector Cordova and Henry Henrez from Grupo Beta prepare to search for people hiding in the desert region of Sonora, Mexico. The group provides migrants with food and water. Andy Adame, spokesman for the Tucson Sector Border Patrol, said the Border Patrol's Search Trauma and Rescue Team routinely works with Grupo Beta on cross-border search and rescue missions and attempts to reunite families. Both governments have worked together on the Border Safety Initiative, which this year became year-round, since 2001. "The bottom line is we're out there trying to save lives," Adame said. "Our primary mission is to secure the border, but we do have a responsibility to make the borders safe." Adame said he hasn't seen Grupo Beta try to deter anyone from crossing the border, but they do warn people about the dangers. The summer heat is most severe in western Arizona, he said, where temperatures reach 118 degrees. In the winter, the chill factor in eastern Arizona becomes deadly. Along the U.S. side of the 261 miles of Tucson sector border, there were 561 rescues and 141 deaths last year, Adame said. "They address the issue of 'if you come, look out for this,' " Adame said. "We address the issue of 'don't come because of this.' "