U.S.-Mexico border: Inside a Migrant Rescue Mission

Brut America

"The desert is a cemetery."  Brut reporter Léo Hamelin - Brut. headed to the Southern border to follow a rescue mission for migrants attempting the deadly cross into the United States.

Transcript

00:00Guys, there is someone around here who needs help. We bring water and food.

00:10Robert, Robert, do you copy me?

00:13Here, comrade Rommel found a bone of the leg.

00:21And it is very short.

00:22A younger person.

00:25Approximately 14 to 16 years old.

00:30We are going to walk around here to see if there is anything else.

00:39Comrades, please, if you want to support us here.

00:45For Brut, I'm taking you to the US-Mexico border in California

00:49on a search mission to try to find lost migrants attempting to cross into the United States.

00:54I'm here with a group of volunteers, the Armadillos.

00:57They get phone calls from family members whose loved ones have disappeared in the desert.

01:02And they embark on extreme search and rescue missions to try to find them.

01:06I'm Angel Martinez. I'm from Oaxaca.

01:10I'm the president of this organization, Armadillos Busca y Rescate San Diego.

01:18In the desert, the heat is so extreme that the shoes come off in the heat.

01:26These are the water bottles that they carry in the desert.

01:31What is it called? A solar? So that they can charge their phones in the desert.

01:38A child's shoe.

01:41We don't know what happened to this child.

01:43If he managed to cross the desert or not.

01:46We don't know.

01:49A child's shoe.

01:51We don't know what happened to this child.

01:53If he managed to cross the desert or not.

01:58If someone finds this, I'm sure they'll eat it.

02:02Because it's life in the desert.

02:05In the desert, there's nothing to eat.

02:07There's no water, nothing.

02:10So, if I were one of them, I'd eat it.

02:15When I crossed the desert, I was 17 years old.

02:21The first two times we tried, the Bol Patrol caught us.

02:25We thanked the Immigration for finding us, because we would have died.

02:29The third time, we managed to cross.

02:32We also suffered a lot, because we got lost on the way.

02:37We suffered a lot.

02:39I know how the desert suffers.

02:42That's why I'm here, to help my people.

02:54Good morning.

02:55Salud, firmes y derechos.

03:00Here we go with all our companions.

03:02I think they're sleeping back there.

03:04There won't be any more signs in this place.

03:07So, there we are.

03:09Take care. God bless you.

03:12God bless you.

03:16We're all volunteers.

03:18We all have a family.

03:20We all have children.

03:23We all have a job.

03:25Some work in construction.

03:27Others work in gardening, in restaurants.

03:33But we have a mission, I think, in this life.

03:37Maybe on the streets, we're friends.

03:42But when we go into the desert, we're family.

03:48For me, an immigrant is my brother.

03:57Apparently, a stone has fallen on him, and they left him there.

04:00When did that happen?

04:02Last Sunday.

04:05That happened last Sunday.

04:07They left my uncle there.

04:09I don't know what I can do to get help.

04:12So, you have coordinates and everything, right?

04:15More or less, they sent us.

04:17Send me the information you have on WhatsApp, please.

04:22Where he stayed, how long he walked, where he went.

04:26That way, it'll be easier to locate him.

04:30Thank you very much.

04:32I'll send you all the information.

04:35Thank you very much.

04:37Goodbye.

04:50We walk where only immigrants walk.

04:56No cars, no motorcycles, no horses.

05:02There's a crisis at the border.

05:05Every day, people are dying.

05:13Robert, do you copy me?

05:15Go ahead, Diego.

05:17No, but there are bones.

05:19So, we're going to take the coordinates of the bones here

05:23and report them to the center.

05:25You may have seen Angel is carrying a cross, a white cross.

05:30That's just in the event that they would find a corpse.

05:34They are not allowed to touch a corpse or remains or anything.

05:39So, what they do is they put some red tape around it.

05:43They take photographs and then they notify local authorities.

05:59Yes.

06:29Yes, he also crossed the desert.

06:31Now, they are no longer there.

06:37And I feel that now, with more strength,

06:42I'm going forward doing this job.

06:59He's going to put it in his hands.

07:19The strongest thing about this job is to give news to the families

07:23who lost a loved one.

07:26They send us and tell us, you know what?

07:28My son, my daughter stayed in this place.

07:32They left her.

07:33And we got to the place, always hoping to find them alive.

07:38But in the end, many of them did not find us alive.

07:47We've been doing this for many years and we still haven't.

07:52We don't feel like it anymore because the need is here.

07:57Here, in these places.

08:01This desert is one of the deadliest migration corridors in the world.

08:05The temperatures can reach 140 degrees.

08:07There's no water, there's no shade.

08:09There are coyotes, snakes, corpios.

08:11But the construction of border walls and the influx of border patrol agents

08:16and surveillance technology such as drones

08:18has pushed people into more and more isolated parts of the desert,

08:22like these mountains.

08:48Do you leave it like this?

08:49Yes, I leave it like this.

08:55It has food for not many days.

08:58Maybe they got tired and left this abandoned here.

09:03Or maybe they were caught by migration.

09:06We don't know.

09:07But here it is very difficult for migration to enter.

09:11Here, only helicopters can enter.

09:13We don't have motorcycles.

09:15If you walk, you know how the road is.

09:32Lie down.

09:33Lie down so your legs get wet.

09:36Wet your legs.

09:39Wet your legs.

09:44Look, since you're better...

09:46Yes.

09:47You won't be able to get there.

09:49I swear, you won't be able to get there.

09:51Honestly, you won't be able to get there.

09:53We're talking about...

09:55About the heart.

09:56Two or three days that you won't be able to get there.

09:59The road is very long.

10:01We just got in in the morning.

10:03We ate a lot.

10:04The temperature is very high.

10:07You won't be able to get there.

10:09But it's fine with you, so we're going to do that, okay?

10:12Yes.

10:13And once you've recovered, it's something else.

10:15You can make it up.

10:16Yes, in time, my brother...

10:17They'll take you to Tijuana or something, and you'll recover and go again.

10:20Is that okay?

10:21Yes.

10:22Okay, Edwin, go ahead.

10:29The Armadillos can help migrants if they find them

10:32with water, food or first aid.

10:34But that's it.

10:35Giving them a ride, for instance,

10:37even if they're dying,

10:39would be committing a federal crime

10:41and they would potentially be considered as mugglers.

11:11Right now he's going to a hospital here in Phoenix.

11:16And he's on his way to life.

11:35He's gone, brother.

11:36Goodbye, brother.

11:41Goodbye.

12:12This one came out of Nanito Torero.

12:17I'm not going to fuck, because I'm going to fall.

12:32Don't do it to him, Ryder.

12:33Oh, fuck.

12:35He's going to get home.

12:37Oh, shit.

12:39And then, Romy, what happened to you?

12:41Well, because I was riding...

12:43The Lord Ryder.

12:45The Lord Ryder.

12:46The old shock absorber broke.

12:49I'm not going to stop looking for my migrant brothers

12:52until God tells me,

12:56you can't go on, Angel.

13:01It's very difficult.

13:03But I'm not going to stop.

13:09I'm going to keep looking for my people.

13:14As long as the walls are closed,

13:19they're not going to stop.

13:22And they're always going to need one,

13:24and we're going to be there for them.

13:28They are humans too.

13:32And they need an opportunity.

13:39AVAILABLE NOW

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