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SIERRA VISTA — A 5-year-old girl traveling with a group of illegal immigrants in the Huachuca Mountains became separated Thursday night from the group.
After a more than 10-hour search overnight, the girl was found cold, shaking, but unharmed, on Friday morning.
“A lot of people worked to find her, a lot of agencies,” said Oscar Miramontes, a member of the U.S. Border Patrol’s Border Search, Trauma and Rescue Team that located the girl about 9:15 a.m. on Friday.
He and fellow BORSTAR team member Matt Slinde said it “felt great” to rescue the girl.
 U.S. Border Patrol’s Border Search, Trauma and Rescue Team members Oscar Miramontes, left, and Matt Slinde walk from Miller Canyon in the Huachuca Mountains with 5-year-old Candy Barranco-Gonzalez after Miramontes and Slinde found her at 9:15 a.m. in the canyon. (Ed Honda-Herald/Review) |
Slinde said he was “relieved that we found her.”
She was found in a tree-covered area known as “The Orchard” at an elevation of 7,000 feet in Miller Canyon south of Sierra Vista — about 8 miles north of the Mexican border.
The search started after 10 p.m. Thursday when Border Patrol agents apprehended eight illegal immigrants in the Miller Canyon area, Tucson Sector Border Patrol spokeswoman Dove Haber said.
About an hour later, the stepfather of Candy Barranco-Gonzales spoke up as the group was being processed at the border station in Naco, Haber said.
The 25-year-old man said his stepdaughter was left behind. He told agents that he did not initally mention his stepdaughter was left behind because he was afraid to identify the smuggler, Haber said.
A description and photograph was given to agents, and then the search began in earnest and lasted overnight.
Cochise County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Carol Capas said the smuggler was apparently moving 11 illegal immigrants, including the girl, and helped her hide when the Border Patrol made contact with the group. The smuggler was later seen during the search, but without the girl, Capas said.
Haber said the smuggler was never caught.
Border Patrol’s BORSTAR team located the girl about 9:15 a.m. on Friday in the Miller Canyon area, Haber said.
Capas said upwards of 100 people were involved in the search. They agencies they were with include the Pima County search team, Cochise County deputies and search team members, an Arizona Department of Public Safety Ranger rescue helicopter, a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Blackhawk helicopter, U.S. Forest Service personnel and Fry Fire District emergency responders.
Maricopa County search team members were on their way to join the effort when the girl was found, Capas said.
Fry Fire Chief Bill Miller said the girl suffered mild effects from the elements considering she spent the night in below freezing weather in rugged terrain.
“The guys said (that) when they arrived on scene she was pretty much bundled up,” Miller said.
It was not certain whether the smuggler or her travel counterparts bundled her up.
“She was in pretty good condition for being in the elements that long, up there in the mountains,” Miller said.
The girl was given an IV of warm fluids because she had slight indications of hypothermia and slight dehydration, and was transported to Sierra Vista Regional Health Center, Miller said.
Border Patrol officials took Candy to the Sierra Vista Regional Health Center to make certain she was not injured or suffering from the effects of a night exposed to temperatures in the 20s. She was wearing a coat, hat and snow boots but had no gloves.
The child and her mother are from Naucalpan, a suburb of Mexico City, but the mother was located in Ciudad Juarez and was expected to be brought to the border region by today, said Raul Saavedra, deputy consul with the Mexican consulate in Douglas.
The girl was not turned over to her stepfather because he does not have legal custody of the child, Saavedra added.
Saavedra said the child crossed with her stepfather but he was feeling tired, and the coyote left him behind. But Candy stayed with the rest of the group as they hiked into Miller Canyon.
After completing interviews and processing paperwork, authorities planned to turn her over to Mexican consular officials at the Douglas port of entry, Saavedra and Border Patrol spokesman Jesus “Chuy” Rodriguez said.
“She’s really scared, but CPS has a home for kids, so she’s going be perfectly fine once she’s there,” Saavedra said.
Rodriguez said children of illegal immigrants frequently are separated from their parents while trying to cross into the United States.
Consular officials frequently see cases where children don’t cross with their parents, and an average of one case a month where people try to take someone else’s child through the port of entry with false identification, Saavedra said.
“Fortunately, this is a happy-ending case,” he said.
HERALD/REVIEW reporter Gentry Braswell can be reached at 515-4680 or by e-mail at gentry.braswell@svherald.com. Herald/Review photo editor Ed Honda and Associated Press reporter Arthur H. Rotstein contributed to this report.
sierravistan wrote on Jan 31, 2008 2:25 PM: