7 Found Dead in Desert Migrant Corridor

Seven people believed to be undocumented immigrants were found dead Thursday in the remote desert of the Imperial Valley, an increasingly popular corridor for illegal border crossers.

The bodies of six men and a woman were discovered huddled under a grove of salt cedar trees about five miles off California 78 near the Salton Sea.

The victims had no backpacks or water jugs, leading Border Patrol officials to speculate that they had been abandoned by a smuggler and then succumbed to the heat.

Separately, authorities Wednesday found the body of another man who may have been part of the group a few miles north of the others. The group of seven was the largest to die crossing Imperial County in recent memory, officials said.

Later Thursday, officials said the body of yet another suspected illegal immigrant was found in the All-American Canal, near the border between Imperial County and Mexico.

An Imperial County coroner’s investigator estimated that the group of seven victims had been dead seven to 10 days when they were found in an area long familiar as a route for smuggling drugs and immigrants.

The victims apparently had begun to disrobe because of the extreme heat; one man was found wearing only boxer shorts.

The discoveries bring to 54 the number of migrants who have died crossing through Imperial County this year. Of those, 17 died of heat-related causes and 30 drowned in the canals that crisscross the agricultural region.

The Imperial Valley has over the past year become a favored route for illegal immigrants because of the border crackdown 120 miles to the west in San Diego. While Operation Gatekeeper has brought arrests to a 17-year low in San Diego, agents in the area around El Centro have watched illegal immigrant traffic soar.

U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Henry Rolon said it is possible that the group found Thursday was seeking to skirt an immigration checkpoint a few miles to the east on California 86.

“This was the most, unfortunately, the most we have found at one time,” Rolon said.

On Tuesday, Border Patrol agents pulled over a U-Haul truck on Interstate 8 in El Centro with 17 illegal immigrants locked in the back.

“They were in bad shape. They were lucky we stopped them,” said Thomas Wacker, chief Border Patrol agent in El Centro. “The aliens were really glad to see us.”

The eastward immigration flow has been particularly worrisome because of the extremes of weather and terrain in the Imperial Valley, where summer daytime temperatures routinely exceed 100 degrees. The heat index in the area has been 115 degrees over the past few days, according to the National Weather Service.

Critics have lambasted the Gatekeeper crackdown as inhumane, saying it merely has driven desperate migrants to try dangerous routes through mountains and back country.

The victims discovered Thursday were found 29 miles north of the border, suggesting to agents that they had been dropped off and were either awaiting a ride or making their way on foot to California 78.

An unknown man reported to agents at the checkpoint Thursday morning that several people were “in distress,” Rolon said. A Border Patrol airplane pilot spotted the group under a grove of trees and directed agents to the spot.

Imperial County coroner’s investigator Ralph Smith said members of the group carried identification indicating that they were from various locations in the interior of Mexico.

The bodies were so severely decomposed that authorities will have to rely on dental tests to determine their ages. He estimated that most of them were in their 20s.

The Border Patrol has recently joined Mexican officials in producing warning signs and radio spots alerting would-be migrants to the perils of crossing in out-of-the-way areas.