3 Migrants Fleeing Border Patrol Drown in Tijuana River

Three Mexican farm workers drowned early Friday morning after they crossed the border illegally and were led into the Tijuana River by smugglers trying to elude the U.S. Border Patrol, authorities said.

Border Patrol agents were able to rescue three other crossers, all 17-year-olds, from the dark waters of the river channel less than a mile from the border while the smugglers fled south. A lifeguard search team found the bodies of the drowned men about 1:30 a.m. Friday, according to Ann Summers, spokeswoman for the Border Patrol. She described the river as about six feet deep and 15 feet across.

“Apparently it was like a sinkhole and they panicked,” Summers said. “It took the agents a while to get the other guys settled down. They were very upset and agitated.”

All six were part of the same family, two generations of farm workers, according to authorities.

Officers of Grupo Beta, a Tijuana border police unit, interviewed the survivors Friday, showing them photos of known smugglers in the hopes of identifying the two who fled. U.S. and Mexican officials blamed the deaths on the smugglers, who could be charged with accidental homicide for sending the farm workers into the river as the agents approached.

“It was an accident motivated by the smugglers who gave them the instructions to hide in the water,” said Carlos Felix, Mexico’s deputy consul in San Diego. Under Mexican law, crimes committed north of the border by Mexican citizens can be prosecuted in Tijuana.

The dead were identified as Lorenzo Gaitan Ramirez, Benito Pacheco Lopez and Marcelino Lopez, all in their 30s or 40s, Felix said.

The incident marks the start of a grim winter season in which numerous border crossers drown in rain-swollen ponds and river channels, despite boat patrols by the Border Patrol and city rescue teams.

In the past, Border Patrol chiefs have gone as far as appearing on Tijuana television to appeal to migrants not to risk the crossing. Felix said the Mexican Consulate plans a similar warning campaign soon.

Friday’s victims came from the state of Oaxaca and had lived in an agricultural workers camp near Ensenada, Felix said. They paid the smugglers $150 each to be taken to north San Diego County, the Border Patrol said.