It was a straight shot from the edge of the little town, about five miles to the border. The migrants set out some time after dark. Blowing snow was expected to limit visibility to one-quarter of a mile or less, it said, with travel advised for “emergencies only.” There, near the Red River, a van would be waiting for them. Six days later, they were among the group of 11 Indians dropped off in Emerson, with instructions to walk south until they spotted the lights of a natural gas plant on the other side of the border, the only landmark for several miles. Patel’s parents for their son’s determination to improve the family’s lot. They left to build a new life,” said Amrit Vakil, who during a visit to the village in January congratulated Mr. They would fly to Canada, and once there, they would be met by guides who would help them cross the border. The Patels, a family friend said, decided to try to go to the United States, where they had family. “The agents guide the people, or misguide them, into going illegally,” Anil Pratham, director of the anti-human trafficking unit of the Gujarat police, said in a telephone interview. It is not clear whether the agencies deliver on such promises, but it has become common for migrants like the Patels to use the agencies to obtain visas, sometimes under false pretenses, such as by seeking student or tourist visas when their actual intent is to slip into the United States. Some guarantee admission to study programs, even for those without the English-proficiency test that is normally required. Offer Letter in 3 days,” one of them offers. The travel agencies’ ads, affixed to lamp posts in the village, tout visas for immigration and study in Canada, a country that sometimes offers easier access for immigrants than the United States. An urgent search, involving drones, a plane, all-terrain vehicles and agents on both sides of the border, led to the discovery several hours later of the ice-encased bodies of a family of four, lost in the snow just 15 yards short of the United States.įormer residents of Dingucha who have emigrated to the West have prospered and funded construction of a school, temple and community center in the village. They had been trudging through knee- to waist-deep snow for 11 hours in whiteout conditions, and two had to be rushed to a hospital.īut what felt like a heroic rescue quickly turned ominous when agents found among the migrants’ belongings a backpack with toys and diapers: A family with children, the migrants said, was still out there somewhere in the unforgiving blizzard. They were migrants from India: listless, disoriented and determined to reach the United States along one of its most desolate frontiers. Border Patrol agents in North Dakota spotted five human forms moving through the barren borderland where America and Canada meet. The air temperature was pushing 20 below zero and howling winds were whipping up blinding snow one morning in January when U.S.
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