U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) has expressed his sadness about the fate of migrants attempting to illegally cross the southern border into the United States as extreme heat in the region has caused dozens of deaths. He cited a media report of a 9-year-old migrant dying from complications in the extreme Arizona heat.
“Heartbreaking,” Green said in a July 10 Twitter post. “The Biden-Mayorkas border crisis is a danger to migrants who make this trek.”
The 9-year-old died after having seizures near Mesa, Ariz., on June 15, a CNN report said, citing a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) release. The child was accompanied by his brother and mother, who had alerted the U.S. Border Patrol Tucson Sector.
The mother initially made a 911 distress call to the Santa Cruz Sheriff's Office, who then transferred the case to border patrol at approximately 9:40 p.m., the CNN report said. The child was subsequently airlifted to Banner Desert Medical Center in Mesa the following day. He died on June 17.
“The female migrant stated her son did not have prior existing medical issues and believed the heat contributed to his medical complications during their walk,” the CBP report said.
The chief of the U.S. Border Patrol has been urging caution to migrants attempting to illegally cross the southern border into the U.S. because of the extreme heat in the region, recently tweeting his concern about how the heat was affecting migrants’ health.
“Extreme heat continues to impact the Southwest Border,” Jason Owens, USBP chief, said in a June 29 Twitter post. “So far this year, our Agents have already made 5,091 heat-related rescues while tragically discovering another 103 migrants deceased due to heat exposure. Do not risk your life illegally crossing the border.”
Fifty-five migrants have died since Oct. 1 in El Paso and Southern New Mexico, an updated June 28 Border Report said. The people who died included those who succumbed to heat-related illnesses after getting lost in the desert.
“We want the migrants to be aware of what is going on and not become another statistic,” Fidel Baca, a Border Patrol spokesman in El Paso, told the Border Report. “We don’t want them to attempt to enter the U.S. illegally by putting their lives at risk, particularly in this extreme heat. We have already rescued 220 people and located 55 dead.”
June 27 was the one-year anniversary of the human smuggling event that resulted in 53 migrant deaths, ABC News reported. The dead—included eight children—were found in a tractor-trailer in the scorching Texas summer.
When the trailer arrived in San Antonio from the border city of Laredo, 48 persons were dead and five more died at a hospital.
“It was the deadliest tragedy to claim the lives of migrants smuggled across the border from Mexico,” the ABC report said. “The dead included 27 people from Mexico, 14 from Honduras, seven from Guatemala and two from El Salvador.”
