Smugglers have been abandoning large groups of migrants in the Sonoran desert near the Mexico border, officials say

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Smugglers have been abandoning large groups of Central American migrants in Arizona’s harsh cactus-studded Sonoran desert near the border with Mexico, alarming border patrol officials who say the trend is putting hundreds of children at risk.

Since 20 August, more than 1,400 migrants have been left by smugglers in the broiling desert – or in one case in a drenching thunderstorm – in remote areas by the border. One group was as large as 275 people.

“We’ve seen large groups in the past, but never on this scale,” Tucson-based border patrol agent Daniel Hernandez said. “It’s definitely a serious concern because their safety is being put in jeopardy.”

Hernandez said the latest case involved 61 people rescued by agents last week from rising floodwaters caused by unusually heavy rains in an isolated area and “it could have been a much, much worse situation if the rain continued”.

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Unlike Texas, where people turn themselves in on the banks of the Rio Grande, the smugglers in in Arizona have been dumping groups of migrant families on a remote dirt road running along the southern limit of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument west of the Lukeville border crossing with Mexico. Summer temperatures there can soar close to 120F (49C).

The migrants are sometimes provided with food and water, but not always, and they often require medical care for back and ankle injuries or lacerations.

The traffickers have “no regard for the safety and wellbeing of these families”, the Tucson sector chief, Rodolfo Karisch, said last week.

Two larger groups of migrants from Guatemala and Honduras were also found abandoned last week near Yuma. Border patrol officers said 108 people were found just before midnight 2 October a half-mile west of the San Luis port of entry and five hours later, agents apprehended 56 Central Americans a mile east of the same border crossing.

While Mexican men traveling without relatives once made up the bulk of the migrants, Guatemalans and other Central Americans traveling in families or as unaccompanied minors are now the norm.

US Immigration and Control Enforcement (Ice) in Arizona began releasing hundreds of people on Sunday to await court dates, saying it didn’t have the capacity to hold an “incredibly high volume” of migrant families showing up at the border.

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Randy Capps, research director for US programs at the Migration Policy Institute thinktank in Washington, said Thursday the smugglers may be bringing the Central Americans through Arizona because it is less patrolled than Texas. He noted that migrants traveling as families are likely to be released much more quickly than lone adult travelers because of limits on holding children.

“As families, they can then often wait years inside the US until they hear back on their asylum claims,” he said.

Under federal law and international treaties, people can obtain asylum in the US if they have a well-grounded fear of persecution in their countries, but Trump administration officials have called for stricter standards.

About eight of every 10 asylum seekers pass an initial screening and are then either held in an immigration detention center or released on bond into the US while their cases wind through immigration courts. Many claims are ultimately denied.

Ali Noorani, executive director of the Washington advocacy group National Immigration Forum, said the government doesn’t have the resources to deal with the wave of migrants and “should use some of that money to address the root causes of poverty and violence in Guatemala and process the asylum cases in a fair manner”.

Central Americans typically cite violence in their homelands when making asylum claims.