2 yrs after Indian family froze to death crossing US border, ‘smugglers’ face trial
On the last night of their lives, Jagdish Patel, his wife and their two young children tried to slip into the US across a near-empty stretch of the Canadian border.
The driver, waiting in northern Minnesota, messaged his boss: “Make sure everyone is dressed for the blizzard conditions, please.” Coordinating things in Canada, federal prosecutors say, was Harshkumar Patel, an experienced smuggler nicknamed “Dirty Harry.” On the US side was Steve Shand, the driver recently recruited by Patel at a casino near their Florida homes, prosecutors say.
The 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 the US. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Wind chills reached -38°C that night in January 2022 as the family set out on foot to meet a waiting van. They walked amid vast farm fields and bulky snowdrifts, navigating in the black of an almost-moonless night.
Over the five weeks the two worked together, documents filed by prosecutors allege they spoke often about the bitter cold as they smuggled five groups of Indians over that quiet stretch of border.
“16 degrees cold as hell,” Shand messaged during an earlier trip. “They going to be alive when they get here?” On the last trip, on Jan 19, 2022, Shand was to pick up 11 more Indian migrants, including the Patels. Only seven survived.
Canadian authorities found the Patels later that morning, dead from the cold.
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 Gujarat, are spattered with ads to move overseas.
“Make your dream of going abroad come true,” one poster says, listing three tantalising destinations: “Canada. Australia. USA.” This is where the family’s deadly 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 their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi, and Dharmik. The couple were schoolteachers, local news reports say. “It wasn’t a lavish life,” said Vaibhav Jha, a local reporter who spent days in the village. “But there was no urgent need, no desperation.”
Today, so many villagers have gone overseas — legally and otherwise — that blocks of homes stand vacant and the social media feeds of those who remain are filled with old neighbours showing off houses and cars.
