Authorities record the deaths of 50 illegal immigrants and rescues of 248 since Oct. 1.

Citizen Staff Report

Two separate border crossings left two people dead Wednesday, although the Border Patrol was able to get almost 60 immigrants safely out of the desert.
One incident left a woman dead and sent another to a hospital, according to the Border Patrol.

In that incident, agents found five illegal immigrants on state Route 86, and the immigrants told agents that more were lost in the desert.

With air support, agents found 46 others, including an unconscious female who was sent to the hospital in Sells.

During the search, Tohono O'odham police officers told the Border Patrol about a dead person in the desert.

That female was found farther west but was part of the group found earlier, according to a Border Patrol news release.

In the other incident Wednesday, an immigrant showed up on the doorstep of an Arizona City home, and the Pinal County Sheriff's Department contacted the Border Patrol to help find the rest of his group, according to the Border Patrol.

While the immigrant was being interviewed, the Border Patrol received a report of two people in distress a mile away at another home.

Agents later found 12 immigrants, two of whom were taken to a medical facility.

One other person had collapsed before he was found. That person received CPR for 35 minutes until paramedics arrived but was pronounced dead shortly afterward.

The Border Patrol's Tucson sector has documented the discoveries of at least 50 bodies of illegal immigrants since the fiscal year began Oct. 1.

Medical examiners in Pima and Cochise counties put that figure higher, at 80 in the same period.

The Border Patrol reports rescuing 248 people in the same period.