Mexican patrol helps out 'migrantes'

AGUA PRIETA, Mexico — Ask Carlos A. Zozaya Moreno if the "migrantes" crossing the Sonoran desert are dangerous and he'll laugh and shake his head.

Moreno, an agent with Grupo Beta, Mexico's government agency charged with protecting the human rights of migrants, listens to country music as he drives his orange pickup truck through the wilderness just south of Arizona.

He's looking for signs of migrants and keeping an eye on members of the Minuteman Project, a monthlong U.S. civilian effort to watch the border and report crossers to Border Patrol.

Another Grupo Beta agent, Julio Cesar Cancino, says his job is simple — to provide migrants with food, water and, if needed, a ride back to the city for medical attention.

"The migrants only want to work," he said. Unlike many of the minutemen, yards away on the other side of a barbed wire fence marking the border, the Grupo Beta agents aren't armed.

When asked what the chances are of finding any migrants today, the agents reply, very slim.

Agent Hector Salazar said the minutemen sitting just across the border have deterred some migrants and diverted routes of "coyotes," or immigrant smugglers, but there are still people trying to cross the border here.

"They don't read newspapers or watch TV," he said. "They don't know about the minutemen."

The U.S. Border Patrol attributes the decreased attempts at border crossing to increased activity in the area by Mexican authorities.

On this day, the Grupo Beta agents start hiking at a spot with a water container marked with a blue flag, proceed past the remnants of a camp, and continue as the path narrows. They're following a trail of footprints, abandoned water bottles and tuna cans.

The path becomes just wide enough for one person at a time as it drops into a winding 6-foot ravine. The agents eventually climb out of the ravine, following the trail through twists of brambles. The migrants, they say, travel mostly at night without the aid of a flashlight.

It's hard to keep up with the agents as they move along, in and out of the ravines, ducking below low-hanging branches. The terrain is at times sandy, sometimes rocky. On this April day, it's 80 degrees at noon.