Conditions Turn More Perilous for Border Crossers

SAN DIEGO —  Abandoned by smugglers in driving snow, overcome by freezing temperatures or hit by cars as they crossed isolated roadways, eight illegal immigrants have died since Monday as they tried to make their way across the treacherous terrain of eastern San Diego County, federal officials said.

The dead included a 17-year-old boy and a 20-year-old woman who died in the arms of the husband she had married two weeks ago in the Mexican state of Guerrero.

The new year has always been a time of increased traffic by illegal immigrants slipping back into the United States after visiting their families in Mexico over the Christmas holidays. Since the Clinton administration implemented the border crackdown known as Operation Gatekeeper in October 1994, illegal immigrants have moved away from western, urban San Diego and now attempt to make their way through the rugged mountains that run from Baja California through the Cleveland National Forest.

It is always a perilous trip; scorching summer sun or fierce winter snowstorms contributed to most of the deaths of 38 immigrants last year.

But the latest spate of fatalities--amid subfreezing temperatures and with another snowfall expected overnight--has shocked even veteran Border Patrol agents.

“In these conditions, it’s not an issue of how many apprehensions you make, it’s how you rescue stranded immigrants,” said Johnny Williams, the Border Patrol’s San Diego chief. “It pulls at the heartstrings of every agent out there to see a young lady or anyone jeopardized by these conditions. When you find someone that didn’t make it, it’s an experience you never forget.”

Jesus Jimenez sobbed Wednesday as he recounted the troubled crossing that ended with the death of his wife, Osvelia Tepec Jimenez, 20, who died in his arms as the family huddled under the Pine Valley bridge south of Interstate 8 in the Cleveland National Forest.

Smugglers told the family that their crossing, which began Sunday near the border town of Tecate, would take six hours. Twenty hours later, the party--family and friends totaling 15--was stumbling over the desert mountains in a blinding snowstorm, taking turns carrying the weak and shivering Osvelia. Their smugglers were long gone.

“I tried to carry her out of there. She said her legs hurt, she was cold,” said Jimenez, 26, breaking into sobs as he spoke of his bride of two weeks.

The couple was bound for Fresno, where Jimenez had worked as a seasonal farm worker for seven years. “I’ve loved her all my life. We had so many plans. We were going to make a new life here, so much better than the one we had. We had so many dreams, but we will never live them now. It’s all my fault for bringing her.”

The first casualty discovered by authorities Monday was a 17-year-old identified by the Mexican Consulate as Raul Anzures Galarza, found in the Corte Madera sector of the Cleveland National Forest, Border Patrol spokesman Scott Marvin said. Osvelia Tepec Jimenez was found later that day.

On Tuesday, a woman was found dead near Campo, a town close to the Mexican border. She was listed by the coroner’s office as Jane Doe. Trinidad Santiago Martinez, 22, was found in the Corte Madera area and another man, whom the coroner’s office could not identify, was found near Jamul, Marvin said.

And early Wednesday, the coroner’s office said, Catalina Enrique Nestor was killed when a car struck her as she ran across California 905 near the border. Her male companion was seriously injured, Marvin said. Then, about noon, the body of an unidentified man turned up near Otay Mesa; the coroner’s office believes he may have died of a heart attack. Another man was found dead late Wednesday by a Forest Service officer in the Long Valley sector of the Cleveland National Forest, but the coroner’s office had no immediate details, according to spokesman Mark Malamatos.

Some immigration experts say the willingness to take such risks demonstrates the desperation generated by Mexico’s economic problems and the difficulties inherent along the entire 2,000-mile border of implementing a policy that defies cross-border family ties that are a legacy of years of U.S.-sanctioned immigrant labor programs.

U.S. officials say the deaths also reflect the ruthlessness of smugglers, who have increased their fees for the difficult trek but have been known to leave immigrants stranded in conditions they cannot possibly survive.

“They collect money from them, dupe them and abandon them,” said the Border Patrol’s Williams. “The smugglers take advantage of rain and bad weather because they know it makes our job a lot harder. These unknowing migrants are at the mercy of criminals who don’t care about them once they are paid.”

To cope with the immigrants at risk, the Border Patrol has equipped agents in the field with blankets, food and first aid equipment, Williams said. Dozens of immigrants have turned themselves in to authorities to escape freezing to death.

Last year, the San Diego office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service initiated a campaign to warn illegal immigrants that if they returned to Mexico for the holidays, it would be much harder to get back into the United States.

Their efforts have been matched by the Mexican Consulate in San Diego, which is launching an emergency campaign with posters and cards warning of the dangers.

But one member of the ill-fated Jimenez party, Irma Mejia, told officials matter-of-factly that she and her husband would immediately try again because they had to reach their 2-year-old son in Los Angeles.

The pull of such family ties remains, even as border policy changes over the generations.

“These people’s fathers and grandfathers crossed the border to work here,” said Williams. “But it’s not the same border.”