They tell Border Patrol they had been waiting 15 days since being left by their smugglers.

GABRIELA RICO

Illegal immigrants found at a camp last weekend northwest of Phoenix told Border Patrol agents they had been waiting up to 15 days for a ride out of the desert, a Border patrol spokesman said.
The 114 illegal immigrants said they were abandoned by their smugglers and had been without food for five days and without water for three, said Roger Maier, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The group was found Saturday after Maricopa County deputies arrested 54 illegal immigrants in a wash near Highway 74 near Wickenburg, Maier said.

David Aguilar, the Tucson sector chief for the Border Patrol, said the incident should be a warning.

"Leaving illegal immigrants in a remote area without any protection from the elements and limited food and water should again serve notice to anyone considering making an illegal entry that their life will be put at risk by the smuggler," Aguilar said.

After deputies found the first illegal immigrants, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol Search, Trauma and Rescue unit found the rest. The group included Mexicans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Hondurans and Ecuadorians, he said.

"Smugglers should be on notice that through the combined law enforcement efforts ... we will track, identify, disrupt and deny their attempts to employ new tactics to smuggle, consolidate and move illegal immigrants in and around the state of Arizona," Aguilar said.

One person was suffering from severe dehydration and was taken to an area hospital with two others, Maier said.