Autopsy Shows Dehydration Caused Immigrant’s Death

EL CENTRO, Calif. â€”  An immigrant from Mexico died of dehydration in the desert east of San Diego, where daytime temperatures have surpassed 110 degrees in recent days, authorities said Tuesday.

An autopsy found that the 24-year-old man from the Mexican state of Guerrero suffered severe dehydration, said Jesse Lopez of the Imperial County coroner’s office.

The man was found Saturday morning by a Border Patrol agent in a mountainous area a few miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. He apparently had been there about three days, Lopez said.

The man’s name was not released pending notification of his family.

The Southern California desert has become a frequently used route for illegal immigrants from Mexico seeking to avoid the more heavily patrolled border in San Diego, about 100 miles to the west.

Border Patrol agents in Imperial County rescued three men and two women from Mexico who were stranded in the desert Saturday, said Manuel Figueroa, a spokesman for the agency.

None of the five required hospitalization and they were returned to Mexico, Figueroa said.

In Imperial County, 43 immigrants have died since Oct. 1. Of those, five died of heat exposure and 26 drowned, mostly in the strong currents of the All-American Canal, he said.