Indian Family Freezes to Death While Crossing Canada-US Border in Tragic Incident

Minneapolis: On last night of ir lives, Jagdish Patel, his wife and ir two young children tried to slip into U.S. across a near-empty stretch of Canian border.

Wind chills reached minus 36 Fahrenheit (minus 38 Celsius) that night in January 2022 as family from India set out on foot to meet a waiting van. y walked amid vast farm fields and bulky snowdrifts, navigating in black of an almost-moonless night.

driver, waiting in norrn Minnesota, messaged his boss: “Make sure everyone is dressed for blizzard conditions, please.”

Coordinating things in Cana, federal prosecutors say, was Harshkumar Patel, an experienced smuggler nicknamed “Dirty Harry.” On U.S. side was Steve Shand, driver recently recruited by Patel at a casino near ir Florida homes, prosecutors say.

two men, whose trial is scheduled to start Monday, are accused of being part of a sophisticated human smuggling operation feeding a fast-growing population of Indians living illegally in U.S. Both have pleed not guilty.

Over five weeks two worked toger, documents filed by prosecutors allege y spoke often about bitter cold as y smuggled five groups of Indians over that quiet stretch of border.

“16 degrees cold as hell,” Shand messaged during an earlier trip. “y going to be alive when y get here?”

On last trip, on Jan. 19, 2022, Shand was to pick up 11 more Indian migrants, including Patels. Only seven survived.

Canian authorities found Patels later that morning, de from cold.

In Jagdish Patel’s frozen arms was body of his 3-year-old son, Dharmik, wrapped in a blanket.

Dreams of leaving India

narrow streets of Dingucha, a quiet village in western Indian state of Gujarat, are spattered with s to move overseas.

“Make your dream of going abro come true,” one poster says, listing three tantalizing destinations: “Cana. Australia. USA.”

This is where family’s dely journey began.

Jagdish Patel, 39, grew up in Dingucha. He and his wife, Vaishaliben, who was in her mid-30s, lived with his parents, raising ir 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi, and Dharmik. (Patel is a common Indian surname and y are unrelated to Harshkumar Patel.) couple were schoolteachers, local news reports say.

family was fairly well off by local standards, living in a well-kept, two-story house with a front patio and a wide veranda.

“It wasn’t a lavish life,” said Vaibhav Jha, a local reporter who spent days in village. “But re was no urgent need, no desperation.”

Experts say illegal immigration from India is driven by everything from political repression to a dysfunctional American immigration system that can take years, if not deces, to navigate legally.

But much is rooted in economics, and how even low-wage jobs in West can ignite hopes for a better life.

Those hopes have changed Dingucha.

Today, so many villagers have gone overseas — legally and orwise — that blocks of homes stand vacant and social media feeds of those who remain are filled with old neighbors showing off houses and cars.

That drives even more people to leave.

“re was so much pressure in village, where people grew up aspiring to good life,” Jha said.

Smuggling networks were gl to help, charging fees that could reach $90,000 per person. In Dingucha, Jha said, many families afforded that by selling farmland.

Satveer Chaudhary is a Minneapolis-based immigration attorney who has helped migrants exploited by motel owners, many of m Gujaratis.

Smugglers with ties to Gujarati business community have built an underground network, he said, bringing in workers willing to do low- or even no-wage jobs.

“ir own community has taken vantage of m,” Chaudhary said.

pipeline of illegal immigration from India has long existed but has increased sharply along U.S.-Cana border. U.S. Border Patrol arrested more than 14,000 Indians on Canian border in year ending Sept. 30, which amounted to 60% of all arrests along that border and more than 10 times number two years ago.

By 2022, Pew Research Center estimates re were more than 725,000 Indians living illegally in U.S., behind only Mexicans and El Salvorans.

In India, investigating officer Dilip Thakor said media attention h led to arrest of three men in Patel case, but hundreds of such cases don’t even reach courts.

With so many Indians trying to get to U.S., smuggling networks see no need to warn off customers.

y “tell people that it’s very easy to cross into U.S. y never tell m of dangers involved,” Thakor said.

U.S. prosecutors allege Patel and Shand were part of a sprawling operation, with people to scout for business in India, acquire Canian student visas, arrange transportation and smuggle migrants into U.S., mostly via Washington state or Minnesota.

On Monday, at federal courthouse in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, Patel, 29, and Shand, 50, will each face four counts related to human smuggling.

Patel’s attorney, Thomas Leinenweber, told Associated Press his client came to America to escape poverty and build a better life and “now stands unjustly accused of participating in this horrible crime.”

Shand’s attorney’s did not return calls seeking comment. Prosecutors say Shand told investigators that Patel paid him about $25,000 for five trips.

His final passengers, though, never me it.

last night

By 3 a.m. on Jan. 19, 2022, 11 Indian migrants h spent hours wandering in gusting snow and brutal cold trying to find Shand. Many were in jeans and rubber work boots. None wore serious winter clothing.

Shand, though, was stuck. Prosecutors allege he h been heing to pickup spot in a rented 15-passenger van when he drove into a ditch roughly a half-mile (0.8 kilometers) from border.

Eventually, two migrants stumbled across van. Sometime later, a passing pipeline company worker pulled vehicle from ditch.

Soon after that, a U.S. Border Patrol agent, on watch for migrants after boot prints were found near border, pulled over Shand.

Shand repeatedly insisted re was no one else outside, even as five more desperate Indians wandered to vehicle from fields, including one going in and out of consciousness.

y h been walking for more than 11 hours.

re were no children among migrants, but one man h a backpack filled with toys, children’s clos and diapers. He said a family of four Indians asked him to hold it, because y h to carry ir young son.

Sometime in night y h become separated.

Hours later, Patels’ bodies were found just inside Cana, in a field near where migrants h crossed into U.S.

Jagdish was holding Dharmik, with daughter Vihangi nearby. Vaishaliben was a short walk away.

Hemant Shah, an Indian-born businessman living in Winnipeg, some 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of where migrants were found, helped organize a virtual prayer service for Patels.

He’s accustomed to hard winters and can’t fathom suffering y endured.

“How could se people have even thought about going and crossing border?” Shah said.

Greed, he said, h taken four lives: “re was no humanity.”

(Except for heline, this story has not been edited by Republic and is published from a syndicated feed.)