TUCSON, Ariz. — It had been five days of walking in more than 100-degree weather when Luis Rigoberto Abac Pelicó ran out of water and food.
He was lost in the Tohono O’odham Nation Reservation after he illegally crossed the border into the United States.
The 21-year-old is from Guatemala and migrated with four other people, but the group got separated and he wandered alone for three days.
VERSIÓN EN ESPAÑOL: ‘Hay cuerpos por todos lados’: Muchos migrantes intentaron cruzar ilegalmente a Estados Unidos por el sur de Tucson en julio
“On the way, as we walked, we saw a dead body in the desert,” Abac Pelicó said.
It was that image that became stuck on replay in his mind. As his feet began to give out and his body signaled it needed water, he called 911.
“I gave myself up,” Abac Pelicó told 12News as he sat inside a Border Patrol vehicle. “My feet weren’t enough anymore. The sun is quite hot. I couldn’t stand it anymore.”
A group of BORSTAR agents – the Border Patrol Search, Trauma and Rescue Unit – came to the 21-year-old’s aid.
Agents found him in Sells, the capital of the Tohono O’odham Nation Reservation. They immediately began to render aid, giving him water, electrolytes, and checking his pulse.
“It’s sad to say, but usually they wait until it’s irreversible,” said Jeremy Lai, one of 47 BORSTAR agents in the Tucson sector, which covers 262 border miles and about 90,000 square miles. “[Abac Pelicó] got to the point he knew he needed help.”
Lai said agents found the Guatemalan in about 15 minutes. They knew exactly where he was because they found a deceased body in a wash 300 yards from where Abac Pelicó called 911 days prior.
“There’s dead bodies everywhere,” Lai said. “That same guy in two hours from now would have been drastically worse.”
Border crossings
Abac Pelicó is one of 39,215 people Border Patrol agents encountered in the Tucson sector in July, making it the area that saw the most people illegally migrating across the southwest border. It’s the highest total this sector has seen since April 2008.
“What we’re experiencing right now is an unprecedented level of unlawful entries,” said Justin De La Torre, deputy chief patrol agent for the Tucson Sector. “Over the last couple of days, we’ve seen just over 1,600 encounters per day.”
De La Torre said many migrants that agents are encountering voluntary surrender, largely in part due to the weather elements. In July Arizona experienced record-breaking heat.
De La Torre said the area around Ajo and Lukeville apprehensions have averaged 750 a day.
“The smuggling patterns of folks who make unlawful entry, they constantly shift,” the deputy chief said. “These are typically decisions by the criminal organizations who facilitate the smuggling activity.”
Data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Friday shows agents arrested more than 130,000 people between ports of entry in July. A 33% increase from June, when numbers reached a record low following the end of Title 42.
Since some migrants successfully migrate into the United States, that gives other people “a false sense of hope” that they too can make it and attempt to cross, De La Torre said.
The death toll
As more people migrated into the United States in July, the number of people being rescued in the desert or perishing under the scorching heat also rose.
The remains of 109 people have been found in the Arizona desert alone, 42 of those in July, according to Humane Borders, a group that helps migrants in the desert and tracks their deaths.
“In my experience, compared this year to last year, we found more deceased people this year,” BORSTAR agent Eric Rivas told 12News during an exclusive ride-a-long in July.
Team 12’s Adriana Loya went on this trip. While with BORSTAR agents, they came across a dead body. The remains were of a migrant that had been reported missing by a volunteer group five days earlier.
The crew stayed back, but even from a distance, they could smell the strong odor of a decomposing body and see a backpack and camouflage clothing on the skeleton. That was all that was left of that person.
“We know the risk, but we have to come,” Abac Pelicó said.
More migrants, more deaths, more rescues
The heat hasn’t been a deterrent for people who attempt to make the treacherous journey across the desert. That has kept agents working around the clock.
“Our manpower has decreased,” Rivas said. “And we’re out here, patrolling such a huge area, so it makes it a lot more difficult to try to prevent some of these entries before they end up getting lost here in the middle of the desert.”
That has led to a lot more people calling 911 and asking for help. Border Patrol agents have performed 28,537 rescues along the southwest border so far this fiscal year, which runs from October to September, according to the agency’s data.
It’s a record-breaking number that has doubled almost every year since 2020.
“Most of the time, we have to call a DPS ranger to help us extract the subjects when they’re up in the mountains,” Rivas said. “That’s really the whole point of us going on two shifts, that way we’re able to get more coverage throughout the day.”
The challenges
When we talk about the desert, we know that it is a deserted and remote area, where cellphone service can be spotty. That has proven to be a challenge for agents when processing migrants they apprehend.
One of the systems they use is an app, but it depends on internet service to function. This often forces agents to drive around looking for service so they can do their intake process.
That was the case during 12News’s exclusive ride-a-long.
When Abac Pelicó was found by agents, they had to drive about a mile away to an area where it was believed to have better service. While the processing was successful, it came with its challenges.
BORSTAR agent Lai had to walk around looking for service while he held his phone up after he took a picture of the 21-year-old Guatemalan to scan his face to see if he had any prior convictions or encounters with Border Patrol. He didn’t.
“We’re at the mercy of phone coverage,” Lai said.
Smugglers
The border crisis depends heavily on what happens across the border, where human smugglers primarily operate.
Too often Border Patrol and sheriff departments have said those trafficking, people and drugs, are U.S. citizens, and in recent years those doing the smuggling have been underage.
This can be frustrating for authorities as laws can be relaxed for minors.
“We have had young teenagers involved taking their parent’s car or 15-year-olds taking their parent's car and coming down trying to make a quick buck,” De La Torre said. “Regardless of whether you’re prosecuted or not, you are still going to have an arrest on your record by a federal law enforcement agency, and that certainly is going to present a challenge to you as you grow up.”
Despite those challenges, Arizona has had the highest rate of convictions relating to its population involving transportation and harboring of undocumented migrants than any other state so far this year, according to data from Syracuse University.
The American Dream
The journey doesn’t end for Abac Pelicó.
Even though he admits he almost died as he attempted to cross the border, he's not giving up on his American Dream.
“Out of necessity I will try again,” he said.
He doesn’t see a future in Guatemala, even though his parents remain there. For him, his home country would mean a death sentence, he said, because of gangs and corruption that force money out of those who don’t have it.
“Coming to an unknown country and trying to improve is what all of us who cross this desert yearn for,” the 21-year-old said. “I ask authorities for asylum, that they give me the opportunity to [come] because if they [don’t], I will have to come again.”
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