Indian family's deadly passage between Canada and United States traces growing smuggling route

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) On the last night of their lives, Jagdish Patel, his wife and their two young children tried to sneak into the United States by crossing a nearly empty part of the Canadian border.

The wind chill reached minus 36 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 38 degrees Celsius) that night in January 2022 as the Indian family set out on foot to meet a waiting van. They walked among vast agricultural fields and abundant snowdrifts, navigating in the dark of an almost moonless night.

The driver, who was waiting in northern Minnesota, sent a message to his boss: Make sure everyone is dressed for the blizzard, please.

According to federal prosecutors, Harshkumar Patel, an experienced smuggler nicknamed Dirty Harry, was coordinating things in Canada. On the U.S. side was Steve Shand, Patel's recently recruited driver at a casino near their Florida home, according to prosecutors.

A U.S.-Canada border marker is displayed just outside Emerson, Manitoba, Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022. (John Woods/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

The two men, whose trial is set to begin Monday, are accused of participating in a sophisticated human trafficking operation fueling a rapidly growing population of Indians living illegally in the United States. Both have pleaded not guilty.

During the five weeks they worked together, documents filed by prosecutors allege they spoke often about the bitter cold as they smuggled five groups of Indians across this quiet stretch of the border.

16 degrees cold as hell, Shand messaged on a previous trip. Will they be alive when they get here?

During the last trip, on January 19, 2022, Shand was to pick up 11 other Indian migrants, including the Patels. Only seven survived.

Canadian authorities found the Patels later that morning, frozen to death.

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

Dreams of leaving India

The narrow streets of Dingucha, a quiet village in the western Indian state of Gujarat, are flooded with advertisements for moving abroad.

Make your dream of going abroad come true, says a poster listing three tempting destinations: Canada. Australia. USA.

This is where the family's deadly journey began.

An aerial view of Dingucha village in Gandhinagar, India, Tuesday, November 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

An advertising poster pasted on a shop in Dingucha village in Gandhinagar, India, Tuesday, November 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

Jagdish Patel, 39, grew up in Dingucha. He and his wife, Vaishaliben, who was in her 30s, lived with her parents and raised their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi, and Dharmik. (Patel is a common Indian surname and they are not related to Harshkumar Patel.) The couple were school teachers, according to local media.

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

House of Baldevbhai Patel, father of Jagdish Patel, in Dingucha village, Gandhinagar district, Gujarat state, India, Tuesday, November 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

It was not a lavish life, said Vaibhav Jha, a local journalist who spent several days in the village. But there was neither urgent need nor desperation.

Experts say illegal immigration from India is driven by everything from political repression to a dysfunctional U.S. immigration system that can take years or even decades to navigate legally.

A woman carries firewood on her head in Dingucha village in Gandhinagar district of Gujarat state, India, Tuesday, November 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

But a lot of it is rooted in economics and how even low-wage jobs in the West can spark hope for a better life.

These hopes changed Dingucha.

A car passes a sign at Dingucha village in Gandhinagar, India, Tuesday, November 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

A statue of the monkey god Hanuman in front of a gateway to the village of Dingucha in Gandhinagar, India, Tuesday, November 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

Today, so many villagers have gone abroad legally or otherwise that blocks remain vacant and the social media of those who remain are filled with old neighbors showing off their homes and cars.

This pushes even more people to leave.

There was so much pressure in the village, where people grew up yearning for a good life, Jha said.

Women walk past a gate at Dingucha village in Gandhinagar, India, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

Smuggling networks were happy to help, charging fees of up to $90,000 per person. In Dingucha, Jha said, many families were able to afford it by selling their farmland.

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

Smugglers with ties to the Gujarati business community have built an underground network, he said, attracting workers willing to take low- or no-paying jobs.

Their own community benefited, Chaudhary said.

Road signs are posted just outside Emerson, Manitoba, Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022. (John Woods/The Canadian Press via AP)

The flow of illegal immigration from India has existed for a long time, but it has increased significantly along the Canada-US border. The U.S. Border Patrol arrested more than 14,000 Indians at the Canadian border in the year ending September 30, accounting for 60 percent of all apprehensions along that border and more than 10 times the number of two years ago.

As of 2022, the Pew Research Center estimates that there were more than 725,000 Indians living illegally in the United States, behind only Mexicans and Salvadorans.

In India, investigator Dilip Thakor said media attention led to the arrest of three men in the Patel case, but hundreds of such cases were not even brought to court.

With so many Indians trying to get to the United States, smuggling networks see no need to warn their clients.

They tell people it's very easy to cross into the United States. They never tell them about the dangers involved, Thakor said.

U.S. prosecutors say Patel and Shand were part of a massive operation to pursue business in India, obtain Canadian student visas, arrange transportation and smuggle migrants into the United States, primarily through Washington State or Minnesota.

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

This combination of images shows left: an undated photo released by the Sherburne County Sheriff's Office of Harshkumar Patel in Elk River, Minnesota, and right: an undated photo released by the U.S. Immigration and of Customs by Steve Shand. (AP Photo)

Patels' lawyer, Thomas Leinenweber, told The Associated Press that his client came to America to escape poverty and build a better life and is now being unfairly accused of participating in the horrific crime .

Shands' attorneys did not return calls seeking comment. Prosecutors say Shand told investigators that Patel paid him about $25,000 for the five trips.

However, its last passengers never arrived.

The last night

At 3 a.m. on January 19, 2022, the 11 Indian migrants had spent hours wandering in snow flurries and brutal cold trying to find Shand. Many wore jeans and rubber work boots. None were wearing serious winter clothes.

An image released by the U.S. Attorney's Office shows how woefully poorly dressed the migrants who survived the crossing were. (U.S. Attorney's Office via AP)

Shand, however, was stuck. Prosecutors say he was heading to the pickup location in a rented 15-passenger van when he ended up in a ditch about a half-mile from the border.

Eventually, two migrants came across the van. Some time later, a passing pipeline company employee pulled the vehicle out of the ditch.

Shortly afterward, a U.S. Border Patrol agent, who had been monitoring migrants after boot prints were found near the border, stopped in Shand.

Shand repeatedly insisted there was no one else outside, even as five other desperate Indians moved toward the vehicle from the fields, including one entering and losing consciousness.

They had been walking for more than 11 hours.

An undated image released by the U.S. Attorney's Office shows items found in a migrant child's backpack. (U.S. Attorney's Office via AP)

There were no children among the migrants, but one man had a backpack filled with toys, children's clothes and diapers. He said an Indian family of four asked him to hold him because they had to carry their young son.

At some point during the night, they had separated.

Hours later, Patel's bodies were found just inside Canada, in a field near where the migrants had entered the United States.

Jagdish was holding Dharmik, with his daughter Vihangi nearby. Vaishaliben was a few steps away.

Road signs are posted just outside Emerson, Manitoba, Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022. (John Woods/The Canadian Press via AP)

Hemant Shah, an Indian-origin businessman living in Winnipeg, about 110 kilometers north of where the migrants were found, helped organize a virtual prayer service for the Patels.

He is used to harsh winters and cannot understand the suffering they endured.

How could these people have thought of crossing the border? Shah said.

Greed, he said, cost four lives: there was no humanity.

___

Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa. Associated Press writers Elliot Spagat in San Diego, Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi, Tim Sullivan in Minneapolis and Ajit Solanki in Dingucha, India, contributed to this report.

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