By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
Border Patrol agents have seen enough bodies of immigrants who died while attempting to cross the border illegally.
In the Tucson Sector alone, 84 bodies were found last year.
Every year, the Tucson Sector hosts “Border Patrol Initiative” to teach agents, nonprofits and the media about the dangers of the rough terrain and heat, KGUN9-TV reports.
The session over the weekend included a 3-mile hike through the desert.
“I want you guys to experience the heat, the dryness, the thirst that’s going to take over,” Acting Special Operations Supervisor Steven Passement said at the beginning of the session. “You’re kind of putting yourself in the feet, or the shoes — if you will — of a migrant.”
Deaths appear to be increasing, Passement said, because criminal smuggling groups don’t show compassion for migrants who struggle with the terrain or weather.
“Unfortunately, you’re looking at a criminal organization that has no loyalty,” he said. “They don’t have the migrants interests at heart. They look at them as cattle. If one falls behind, they’ll leave them.”
