Human smuggling trial hears from migrant who survived crossing border in blizzard

FERGUS FALLS — Yash Patel had only been away from his native India for a few weeks when he was dropped off on the bald Canadian prairie in the middle of a nighttime blizzard and given vague instructions to walk in a straight line into the United States, he testified Wednesday.

He was part of a group of Indian nationals trying to sneak across a stretch of remote border between Manitoba and Minnesota. Four of the group — a family with two young children — would be found frozen to death the next morning.

“I was very scared. I wanted to have help from someone, but there was no one,” Patel, through an interpreter, told the trial of Steve Shand and Harshkumar Patel, who is not related. The two men have pleaded not guilty to charges related to several illegal crossings of Indian nationals from Manitoba into Minnesota in late 2021 and early 2022.

On Jan. 19, 2022, U.S. border patrol agents found a van with out-of-state licence plates and several adult migrants in rural Minnesota, just south of the border. One had a backpack with children’s clothing and diapers, which prompted another search.

Hours later, RCMP found the bodies of the family — Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife, Vaishaliben Patel, 37; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and their three-year-old son, Dharmik. The boy’s body was still under his father’s arm. One of the father’s gloves covered the boy’s face. Patel is a common name in India and the family is not related to others involved in the trial.

Yash Patel’s testimony marked the first time the trial has heard from one of the migrants from that crossing. He said he came to Canada on a student visa, aided by a friend of his grandfather, but never registered for school.

He landed in Toronto in December of 2021, he said, and within a few weeks was flown to Vancouver, sent back to Toronto and then driven to Winnipeg, where he was put in a house with several other Indian nationals.

One night, a van came to pick up everyone in the house, he said. There was a family with two children already in the van and the group was taken south toward the border, where the van got stuck in snow and the driver ordered everyone out. A meteorologist testified earlier the temperature was below -20 C and the wind chill made it feel even colder.

It was dark and blustery, and the driver told everyone to walk until they came across a van on the American side, Yash Patel said.

“He just said to keep moving straight.”

He testified he walked with the group for about 10 minutes before becoming separated in the blinding snow. Five or six hours later, he said, he found the American van, which was also stuck in snow, and got in to warm up.

He was soon taken into custody by border patrol agents, along with the driver and another passenger.

Shand is accused of being that driver and part of an organized international smuggling ring. His lawyers have said Shand was a taxi driver who had simply picked up people for his co-accused in different parts of the United States, and did not think he was doing anything wrong until the day he was arrested.

Patel’s lawyers have said he was misidentified as a participant in the human smuggling ring.

The jury was shown text and social media messages sent between two cellphones registered to Shand and a phone number that matches one that Harshkumar Patel submitted when he applied for residency in the U.S.

In one exchange in December 2021, a message from Shand’s phone says it was “cold as hell.” It’s followed by, “They going to be alive when they get here?”

On the other phone, a response says a location would be sent.

The trial was shown that on Jan. 19, 2022, Shand received a message saying, “You stuck?” The reply: “Still stuck.”

Shand was then instructed to turn his vehicle lights on and off “so that they can see,” and was later told to try to drive further to find people. He was sent an image of a map with the border circled.

The trial also heard Wednesday from one of the RCMP officers who found the bodies of the family of four.

The father and children were a couple of metres north of the border on an unmaintained gravel road, Sgt. Pierre Demers said. The trial was shown photos of the bodies, partially covered in snow and bearing thin jackets and normal pants. The bodies lay open to the elements, with no trees, buildings or other shelter in sight.

The mother’s body was found about one kilometre to the east, against a fence that surrounds an unmanned natural gas facility.

Demers said the weather was so bad, the area’s main highway had been closed overnight and officers had to use winter vehicles with tracks and enclosed cabs to stay warm while getting to the scene.

“The snow was too deep,” Demers said.

Officers called the medical examiner and later lifted the bodies to get them taken away. The bone-chilling cold meant they could only tend to one body at a time before jumping back in their vehicle, Demers said.

“We had to warm up for a couple of minutes before going back out.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 20, 2024.

Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press