400 Migrants Surrender to Border Patrol in Storm

More than 400 undocumented immigrants were forced to turn themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol agents after being caught in a sudden, winter-like storm while crossing the Arizona desert, U.S. officials said Friday.

Five people were taken by helicopter and ambulance to Tucson hospitals with symptoms that included hypothermia.

Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, said a middle school was converted into a makeshift shelter in Sells, 30 miles north of the border. The town is on the Tohono O’odham Indian reservation, about an hour’s drive southwest of Tucson.

The reservation, which abuts the Mexican border, has become a favored route among undocumented immigrants skirting a buildup of border agents to the west in San Diego and Imperial counties.

Officials said migrants began seeking out border agents late Thursday after the storm hit Arizona with high winds, rain and, in some spots, snow. Temperatures dipped into the 30s.

David V. Aguilar, Border Patrol chief for the Tucson area, said the storm apparently caught immigrant smugglers off guard.

“The migrant smugglers simply abandoned many of these people when they sensed bad weather was coming,” Aguilar said.

Officials said more than 100 Border Patrol agents, equipped with medical gear, searched for any others stranded and planned to be on alert overnight.

A similar episode occurred in that area last year, when 330 migrants were rescued from a snowstorm.

The stretch of desert is perilous, with broad and desolate expanses subject to extremes of heat and bitter cold.

Migrant rights activists have charged that the U.S. government’s efforts to tighten the border in populated areas has driven migrants to cross in areas where the risk of death is high. Eight people died in eastern San Diego County two years ago after being caught by a surprise April snowstorm.

Last year, at least 70 migrants died crossing in the Tucson area and 1,300 others were rescued, according to INS figures. The Border Patrol expanded air patrols last summer to deter crossings and search for those in distress.