| U.S. News

Now, as a legal U.S. resident, Hernandez and his band of volunteers patrol both sides of the Mexican-California border near San Diego looking for lost migrants and leaving water, clothing and food at strategic desert locations to help people on their journey.

"I know how people suffer. I've lived it in the flesh," Hernandez said in a telephone interview.

Hernandez, a construction equipment mechanic, is the director of Angeles del Desierto, Spanish for "desert angels," which he founded eight years ago. The angels are 60 volunteers, many from San Diego Catholic parishes, who take turns with the 52-year-old Hernandez patrolling the borderland two to three times a week.

In groups of 10 to 15 people, they patrol a swatch of desert covering a radius of 60 miles and extending into both countries.

"If we find people who need help, we take care of them. We get them back up on their feet so they can continue their journey," said Hernandez.

Sometimes, the people they find are dead. As of mid-September, Angeles del Desierto had found five bodies this year.

Hernandez said that he often finds people – on average about 10 to 15 a week – who are badly injured or in a weak condition. These people are urged to go to a hospital if they are on the Mexican side and Hernandez offers to take them.

If they are on the U.S. side, Hernandez said that he tries to convince them to let him call the U.S. Border Patrol and let the Border Patrol take them to the hospital before deporting them.

Hernandez said that initially he had problems dealing with the Border Patrol and Mexican immigration officials.

On the U.S. side, "I was accused of helping Mexicans come here to commit crimes," he said. "I had to work in secret."

Mexican officials accused his group of interfering with their work, said Hernandez.

"Now we are accepted" on both sides of the border, he said. "Officials see that we are rescuing people."

Hernandez added that sometimes the Border Patrol calls him and asks his help in finding people they hear about who are lost in the mountains. He also learns about lost migrants from people deported from the United States.

On Saturdays, Hernandez sets up a stand on the Mexican side of the border where he distributes water, food and clothing to people who arrive in buses after having been deported by the U.S. His group also provides information on places where the deportees can spend the night.

The deportees often tell Hernandez about members of their respective groups who got lost in the border crossing.

Before going to the Mexican side on Saturdays, Hernandez stops at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in San Diego where parishioners make sandwiches for him to distribute to the deportees.

From his own trekking experiences, Hernandez cites water as the most important element that he can leave for people in the desert. The food he leaves consists mostly of canned tuna fish and cookies.

Hernandez also collects used clothing and leaves bags with pants, sweaters and shirts "and, if I can, shoes."

Hernandez gets his supplies and funds by knocking on doors and from a food bank, which either sells him food at a low cost or donates it.

His group also sets up a stand outside St. Jude Church in San Diego after weekend Masses to collect money and provide information about the work of Angeles del Desierto.