Credit: U.S. Customs and Border Prevention

WARROAD, Minn. (AP) — Nine men who entered the United States illegally from Canada were rescued from a sub-freezing bog and given medical treatment for exposure to the cold, authorities said Wednesday.

The nine, ranging in age from 19 to 46, were found Tuesday near Warroad, a small lakeside Minnesota community about 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) south of the Canadian border. The area is southwest of an official port of entry.

U.S. Border Patrol agents and rescuers from other agencies were sent to the area at around 5 a.m. after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said someone in the group of men had made an emergency phone call, a Border Patrol statement said.

The men were found in a flooded bog.

“When agents arrived on scene, they determined the temperatures in the bog were below freezing and they would require special equipment to reach the group,” the statement said. “The agents were able to rescue the men from the frigid water by wearing protective suits.”

The men were taken to medical facilities for treatment and seven were later taken into immigration custody. There was no immediate word on the conditions of the remaining two men.

Seven of the men were Mexican citizens but there was no immediate word on the nationality of the men still being treated because of their conditions, the Border Patrol said.

In January 2022, four members of a family from India, including two children aged 3 and 11, died while attempting to walk into the U.S. from Canada during a blizzard. They were in a group of 11 people who were trying to cross near the Minnesota-North Dakota border.

Their frozen bodies were found near Emerson, Manitoba, only a few yards from the U.S. border after they became separated from the group, authorities said.

A Florida man was charged in that case with transportation of an undocumented immigrant but not with the deaths.

By — Lakeland News