7-year old girl's death highlights rise in undocumented immigrants from India

The US Border Patrol searched the rugged terrain near the Mexico-Arizona border.

A 7-year old girl's body authorities say is from India was found June 12 in Arizona's rugged desert area near its border with Mexico. The mother and 6-year old sister were found a day later by the Border Patrol.

The girl, Gurupreet Kaur, had reportedly been traveling with four other Indian nationals and were dropped near the border by human smugglers who ordered the group to cross in the dangerous and austere location, according to statement from US Customs and Border Enforcement.

Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents learned this information after encountering two adult women from India, who explained how they had come to the United States, and that three others, a woman and two children, had become separated from them hours earlier.Gurupreet’s mother and another woman went in search of water, leaving the 7-year-old girl with two others from the group. The girl’s mother was found by a U.S. Border Patrol agent 22 hours later. Four hours after that, Border Patrol agents found Gurupreet’s body, which was recovered by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.

Agents took the two women into custody and began searching the area north of the international border in remote terrain, seven miles west of Quitobaquito Springs, for the missing persons. 

One mile south of the where the girl’s body was found, Mexico’s Highway 2 runs parallel to the border, a few hundred yards south of the international boundary. On the U.S. side of the border, this remote area is a rugged desert wilderness with few backcountry roads and little to no resources.

According to the National Weather Service, the high temperature in the area yesterday was approximately 108 degrees.

The incident points out a little known trend. Undocumented immigrants from other countries other than Mexico, especially from India and Africa, have been on the rise in recent years, according to the Pew Research Center. 

The numbers of Indians crossing US borders has steadily risen in recent years. Last year, more than 9,000 people from India were detained at US borders nationwide -- a big increase from the prior year, when that number was about 3,100, reports CNN. A decade ago, in 2009, that number was 204.

There are at least 630,000 undocumented Indian immigrants in the US, a 72% increase since 2010.

“Our sympathies are with this little girl and her family,” said Tucson Chief Patrol Agent Roy Villareal. “This is a senseless death driven by cartels who are profiting from putting lives at risk."

A Border Patrol agent pours out water that was left in the desert by humanitarian group for border crossers.

The border agency's concern is contrary to reports by by two Arizona-based humanitarian groups, No More Deaths and La Coalición de Derechos Humanos,

Border patrol agents routinely vandalise containers of water and other supplies left in the Arizona desert for migrants, condemning people to die of thirst in baking temperatures, according to the report.

In their report published on Wednesday (June 17), the Tucson-based groups said the agents committed the alleged sabotage with impunity in an attempt to deter and punish people who illegally cross from Mexico.

Volunteers found water gallons that they placed in the desert vandalised 415 times, on average twice a week, in an 800 sq mile patch of Sonoran desert south-west of Tucson, from March 2012 to December 2015, the report said. The damage affected 3,586 gallons.

The report said wildlife – as well as hunters, hikers and border militia members – also damaged aid drops. But it said the main culprits were agents from border patrol, a branch of Customs and Border Protection, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

A day before the 7-year old Indian girl was found, a Tucson jury was unable to convict Scott Warren for giving food and temporary shelter to a pair of Central American migrants who snuck into the country last year.

The hung jury does not absolve Warren, a 36-year-old geography teacher from Ajo and a volunteer of No More Deaths. The Department of Justice hasn't announced whether they will retry the good Samaritan.

The decision about whether to cremate the body of Gurupreet Kaur or take the remains back to India will be made by the girl’s family members, Sumati Rao, Consul (CIC & Visa), Consulate General of India, San Francisco, told indica in an email.

“In cases of death, there are a number of formalities/documentation required, for which the Consulate has offered assistance,” said Rao when asked her body will be cremated here or in India.

“We are in touch with the (Customs and Border Patrol) officials on the situation. We have also reached out to the family and offered assistance,” said Rao. 

The Consulate is deeply distressed with the sad loss of a young life, she added.

Meanwhile, civil rights organization SAALT (South Asian Americans Leading Together), a nonprofit organization that fights for racial justice and advocates for the civil rights of all South Asians in the U.S., said in a statement that the young girl's death was devastating.

“U.S. border militarization, forced migration, and rejection of migrants attempting to cross at ports of entry have created an environment where a child like Gurupreet, can die in the desert, alone,” said Lakshmi Sridaran, interim co-executive director of SAALT. “Until this system is completely defunded and a new one is created that upholds the dignity of all migrants – we will continue to see unspeakable tragedies, notwithstanding the countless deaths that go undocumented. While ICE and CBP have experienced unprecedented surges in their budgets, their treatment of migrants has plunged to new lows."

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