The Wider Image: Deadly crossing ends American dream for Guatemalan migrant
ATTENTION EDITORS - VISUAL COVERAGE OF SCENES OF INJURY OR DEATH The 911 emergency call came in to the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson station around midnight. Joselino Gomez Esteban's voice crackled through an older cell phone from somewhere in Arizona's Sonoran Desert, the final stretch of a 2,000 mile (3,218 km) migration from Guatemala. Gomez said he was lost. He needed help. His nephew had collapsed, wouldn't respond. Each year hundreds of migrants die trying to cross into the United States from Mexico. Thousands more need rescuing. The Border Patrol tallied 294 deaths in fiscal year 2017, the last year for which data is available. But experts believe the actual figure is far higher. Some who die are never found. A quarter of those known deaths - 72 people - came in the Tucson border sector, where summer temperatures routinely hit triple digits. Between October of 2017 and October of 2018, the Tucson Border Patrol launched 923 rescue operations, a 22 percent rise from a year before, according to an agency official. Finding Gomez, 43, and his nephew, Misael Paiz, 25, would prove difficult. The cell phone Gomez used did not provide his GPS coordinates. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson SEARCH "SONORAN DESERT" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES. TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY. Matching text: USA-IMMIGRATION/ROUTE
