Tucson Region

Border Patrol getting entrants' calls for help

Border Patrol agents are seeing an unforeseen consequence to a U.S. government plan that was intended to help illegal entrants but instead lulls them into a false sense of security, said the commander of the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector rescue unit. The plan, part of the Border Safety Initiative, was to distribute the Border Patrol's help line number, 1-877-USBP-HELP, on public service announcements in Mexico. It also advises illegal entrants to call 911 if they become lost or run into trouble and need rescuing. As a result, this federal fiscal year, BORSTAR - the Border Patrol Search, Trauma and Rescue team - has received 15 emergency cell phone calls from distressed migrants through Southern Arizona emergency dispatch centers, said BORSTAR commander Ron Bellavia. On one hand, the cell phone calls from the desert have led to the rescue of 176 people since Oct. 1. Wednesday, four cell phone calls came in within three hours, he said. On the other hand, they contribute to an idea that rescue agents can drop in and rescue somebody anywhere. "It's give them a false sense of security that we can access and locate everyone. But that isn't the case. It's still a very vast area," Bellavia said. That, and the problems regular users have with dying batteries and poor cell phone coverage, can quickly turn a bad situation worse, he said. A 911 recording from a BORSTAR rescue Wednesday afternoon illustrates his point. The call comes in scratchy, the Mexican man asking in broken English if the dispatcher speaks Spanish. Miguel gives only his first name to the dispatcher, then is put on hold and transferred to the Border Patrol. The call is dropped. He calls back, this time reaching a busy signal at the Border Patrol. A third call. This time the dispatcher doesn't speak Spanish. Then: "Yes, good afternoon," says the professional interpreter for the Pima County Sheriff's Department 911 center. "We're lost," Miguel says, telling the interpreter there are about 10 others with him. He's transferred again, then: "You just called, didn't you?" "Help us, because the battery is dying," he says. The call is dropped again. He calls 911 back, this time stressing: "There's people dying." Eight minutes into the call, an agency operator is able to pick out the details of the group's location, such as they are. Miguel sees "white buckets" on a tall mountain far away. The Kitt Peak observatory. He sees flames. The Florida Fireoff Interstate 19. He sees the lights of Tucson at night. The group walked for four days. "We're at a place where there's green trees," he says. "Bring water please." The BORSTAR agents tried to call the number back, Bellavia said. The battery was dead. In the end, a Homeland Security agency pilot spotted several signal fires and the rescue team was able to rescue 23 people from four groups, including Miguel's, Bellavia said. False senses or no, the cell phone calls are better than the alternative. Tuesday alone, three more illegal entrants died in the Tucson Sector, one of those while she was being flown to a hospital, said sector spokeswoman Andrea Zortman. The bodies of two men were found, one about 7:30 a.m. in Vamori on the Tohono O'odham Nation and the second near Amado, she said. The woman was found about 9:15 a.m. The findings push the number of dead illegal entrants up to at least 157 in Arizona since the start of the fiscal year Oct. 1.