Bodycam shows moment Border Patrol agents rescued an undocumented immigrant abandoned in the California mountains by human smugglers
A U.S. Border Patrol agent recorded the moment an undocumented immigrant was saved in the California mountains after he was abandoned by human smugglers.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said agents were conducting a surveillance mission in the Jacumba Mountains in Jacumba when they encountered a 55-year-old man from Mexico who was suffering from heat stroke.
The El Centro Sector agents heard the man's faint cry for assistance and found him lying under a rock.
A Border Patrol agent provides water to a 55-year-old man from Mexico who was abandoned by human smugglers in the California mountains on August 13
CBP said U.S. Border Patrol agents were conducting a surveillance operation of the Jacumba Mountains in Jacumba, California, when they heard the faint cries of a Mexican man who was suffering a heat stroke. He was airlifted to a hospital for treatment
A Border Patrol Search Trauma and Rescue Team administered the migrant with intravenous fluids and requested air support to transport him out of the mountains.
Border Patrol Chief Agent Gregory K. Bovino shared the rescue footage of the August 13 incident on his Twitter account Wednesday as an advisory warning for migrants seeking to unlawfully enter the United States and to show them the dangers they could encounter.
An agent could be seen holding a bottle of water for the distressed man. Agents carried the Mexican man for at least a half mile in 115-degree heat to an area where the helicopter was awaiting.
The man was then transported to a hospital in the Imperial Valley for additional treatment.
Border Patrol agents carried the ill 55-year-old Mexican man for a half mile in 115-degree heat
According to CBP stats, agents have rescued 3,854 undocumented immigrants in the southwestern border area through July.
The CBP El Centro Sector has rescued 79 undocumented immigrants who have been left stranded by smugglers through August 5. Since then, the sector's Border Patrol agents have saved at least 11 more individuals.
The El Centro Sector has seen a 49 percent drop in arrests of migrants unlawfully entering the United States from Mexico through July, compared with the same period last year.
'We treat everyone with dignity and compassion here,' a CBP spokesperson told DailyMail.com. 'But we also have a job to do, to secure out nation's borders and if that results in a rescue, then we have to conduct rescues as well.'