More migrants found overcome by heat in Santa Teresa area

SANTA TERESA, New Mexico -- Triple-digit temperatures have seen U.S. Border Patrol and Sunland Park firefighters perform multiple rescues this week involving migrants suffering from heat exhaustion in the desert. 

ABC-7 learned Friday that Border Patrol agents found eight migrants at the Afton Railroad Crossing near the Santa Teresa Border Station on Thursday, two of whom had to be airlifted to University Medical Center in El Paso due to heat exhaustion.

A Border Patrol official told ABC-7 that one of the victims was a woman from Ecuador, while the other was a Mexican man. A spokesperson for UMC said both of the migrants were listed Friday in stable condition. 

The group told border agents that they had been walking outside without food or water for several days. 

Border Patrol said the other six migrants were sent back to Mexico under Title 42, a health emergency order that allows migrants to be expelled due to concern over the spread of Covid-19.

Also Thursday, as ABC-7 previously reported, a 20-year-old migrant man was found unconscious and died in the 100-degree heat in a desert area located between some homes and the Memorial Pines Cemetery.

And on Wednesday, a pair of Ecuadorian migrant women overcome by heat were found off of Strauss Road near the Santa Teresa port of entry. One of the women was unconscious and both were taken to hospitals for treatment.