see also: in August 2006 News Releases:   CBP Miami Field Office Tropical Storm Ernesto Advisory # 4   CBP Atlanta Field Office   CBP Border Patrol Agents Arrest Convicted Gang Member   CBP Miami Field Office Tropical Storm Ernesto Advisory #3   Customs and Border Protection to Staff Marinas in South Florida During Labor Day Weekend   CBP Tampa Field Office Tropical Storm Ernesto Advisory #1   CBP Miami Field Office Tropical Storm Ernesto Advisory #2 ...more on cbp.gov:   CBP News Releases   Press Officers

contacts for this news release

El Centro, Calif. – U.S. Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol agents yesterday discovered a man and woman south of Highway 98, about 15 miles west of Calexico, Calif., who apparently had succumbed to the effects of heat exposure.

A commuter who had stopped for a 13-year-old child found walking on Highway 98 approximately 15 miles west of Calexico alerted Border Patrol agents from the El Centro Sector about 2 p.m. Thursday. The child told agents that he and his family were part of a group being smuggled though the desert and that some of his family members were left behind in the desert.

The Border Search Trauma and Rescue Team, the Border Patrol’s elite rapid-response rescue team, was activated. BORSTAR members backtracked the child’s footprints and located two more children, ages 11 and 8. The two children stated that their mother and another male had collapsed and were told to continue on without them.

Agents continued tracking with the aid of El Centro Air Operations and located the two missing adults further in the desert, approximately five miles west of Mount Signal Road. The female was not breathing and was later pronounced dead. The male was still alive but suffering from extreme heat-related injuries.

Agents immediately began emergency life saving efforts and called for emergency medical assistance. Agents administered water and cold packs, but the man stopped breathing. Agents performed CPR and rescue breathing. Despite theses efforts, the man was later pronounced dead by the Imperial County Coroner. Agents treated the three children for heat exhaustion.

The three children claimed that they and the two adults who perished crossed into the United States illegally through the desert and were left behind by the smuggler. Three other individuals including the smuggler had reportedly loaded into a vehicle and drove away on Highway 98.

Chief Border Patrol Agent Carl L. McClafferty of the El Centro Sector said, “The fact that these children, woman and man were found in such dire circumstances, so close to the border and abandoned so near to a major roadway clearly illustrates the inhumane treatment these people are subjected to by smugglers.”

Anyone having any information on this incident is urged to please contact Immigration and Customs Enforcement at 1-866-347-2423.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation's borders at and between official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.