Thursday, July 14, 2005

Son wants chance to find mom's body

Migrant awaits nod to join desert search

CLAUDINE LoMONACO

Tucson Citizen

Fifteen-year-old Jesus Abran Buenrostro Dominguez memorized the silhouette of Baboquivari Peak as his mother lay dying on the desert floor.

If he could remember where they were, maybe he could get help. His mother, 35-year-old Lecrecia Luna Dominguez, died before he had the chance.

Now all he wants is the chance to find her body and bring her home.

The Border Patrol found and returned Jesus to Mexico three days after his mother died. He hadn't had water for days and was in shock. The Border Patrol didn't learn about his mother until days later.

By that time, nearly a dozen friends and family members from as far away as New Hampshire had descended on Tucson to try to help find the body. The Mexican Consulate here arranged a one-day special visa to allow Jesus to help. The family said the Border Patrol gave up after an hour and a half. The Border Patrol, which said agents searched for 10 hours, said the boy has no idea where his mother is.

Since then, a growing cadre of volunteers from Tucson has joined in the search, and the family has been trying desperately to get Jesus back into the country.

Related: More border coverage

"We have little chance without my grandson," said the woman's father, Cesario Dominguez Saldiva.

Jesus has spent most of the last two weeks in rundown hostels and hovering in a shaded plaza near the port of entry in downtown Nogales. He doesn't go far, in case word comes that he can enter the United States and join the search.

Jesus never wanted to come to the United States in the first place.

"I wanted to stay home," he said.

Home is the small village of San Martin Sombrerete in Zacatecas. Jesus' father works in Texas, and it was hoped the family could reunite. They crossed with Jesus' 7-year-old sister Nora. When Luna Dominguez fell ill on the third day of the journey, the group of village friends they were traveling with continued on with Nora. Jesus stayed behind to be with his mother.

"She kept begging me to go on without her, but I couldn't leave her," Jesus said.

A week after Jesus' family learned that his mother had died, the consulate arranged for a search with the Border Patrol. The Border Patrol would take Jesus, who was granted a one-day permission to enter the country, his grandfather, and a consulate translator in a helicopter to search for the body, the consulate told the family.

"It's protocol for both ground and air operations to participate in searches," Border Patrol spokesman Gustavo Soto said.

On the day of the search, the consulate representative failed to show up and the Border Patrol never got the helicopter.

"None was available," Soto said.

As soon as Dominguez saw there would be no helicopter, "My heart sank," he said. "I knew they weren't serious. How can you find a body in the desert like that?"

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