Second man charged, more counts added in Indian family’s horrific 2022 freezing deaths at border

A U.S. grand jury has indicted two men for their alleged roles in a human-smuggling case linked to the deaths of an Indian family of four near Emerson.

The superseding indictment — replacing the original — in Minnesota contains four additional charges against Steve Shand and seven new charges against Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, who was arrested in February.

Patel is accused of recruiting Shand to pick up Indian migrants who illegally walked into the U.S. from Manitoba, including a group that crossed while the family froze to death in a field east of Emerson during a -35C blizzard in January 2022.

U.S. border patrol agents allegedly found Shand and two migrants in a van just over the border near St. Vincent, Minn. Five other migrants were found on a road nearby.

Hours later, RCMP officers discovered the bodies of Jagdishkumar Patel, 39, Vaishaliben Patel, 37, their daughter Vihangi, 11, and three-year-old son Dharmik just steps from the border.

Patel’s charges include conspiring to bring undocumented immigrants into the U.S., causing serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy. He remains in custody ahead of a court appearance Wednesday.

Patel, who was not related to the victims, was known as “Dirty Harry” within the smuggling ring, U.S. court documents allege.

Investigators believe the Indian citizen illegally entered the U.S. from Canada and lived in Florida.

Additional charges against Shand, from Deltona, Fla., relate to alleged transportation of undocumented immigrants.

He previously pleaded not guilty to two other charges and was released on bail. A trial that was scheduled to begin Monday was postponed.

No one has been charged in Canada.

Court documents allege Shand told investigators he was paid about $25,000 to pick up migrants and drive them to the Chicago area, starting in December 2021.

Hours before the family was found dead, Shand allegedly sent a text to Patel, stating: “Make sure everyone is dressed for the blizzard.”

“Done,” Patel texted back, according to court documents.

“We not losing any money,” Shand allegedly replied.

For dozens of desperate migrants each year, the flat, mostly open landscape around Emerson is a clandestine pathway to the so-called American dream.

Lately, more people have been crossing for refuge or other reasons — occasionally, with young children in tow.

“Anybody who’s considering coming across, either by themselves or with children, it’s not worth the risk,” U.S. border patrol agent David Marcus recently told the Free Press. “When you bring kids with you, it makes the situation even more dangerous.”

On March 11, Morden police stopped an alleged smuggling bid, when officers pulled over a vehicle with five adult passengers who were dressed for the cold.

The RCMP, who took over the investigation, said the passengers were going to try to enter the U.S. illegally. The driver, a 34-year-old Ontario man, was charged with human smuggling.

In late January and early February, U.S. agents found two large groups of Romanian nationals who illegally drove across the border near Gretna and got stuck in snow near Neche, N.D., said Marcus.

They were “family units,” with a two-year-old child in one of the carloads, he said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents have apprehended 100 people between Oct. 1, the start of a new fiscal year, and Feb. 29.

A total of 86 people were detained during the same five-month period in the 2022-23 fiscal year.

According to federal data, Manitoba RCMP intercepted 77 asylum seekers between ports of entry for the 2023 calendar year, plus 24 between Jan. 1 and Feb. 29.

Annual figures have been ticking up since the COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions were lifted.

Marcus said most illegal crossings along Manitoba’s border occur in an area about 30 kilometres either side of Emerson and Pembina, N.D., which is just over the border.

It’s mainly because the communities are close to major routes (Highway 75 in Manitoba and Interstate 29 in North Dakota), he said.

Some crossings are linked to large cartel smuggling rings, while some people pay more than US$10,000 to smugglers, Marcus added.

“All they care about is money,” he said of smugglers. “They can’t promise that they’ll get someone through, and they can’t promise someone safety.”

Mexican citizens typically represent the highest proportion of U.S. apprehensions along Manitoba’s border with the U.S.

In May 2023, a farmer found the body of a suspected migrant in a drainage ditch near Pembina, just metres from the border.

Pembina-area farmer Tim Wilwand, who didn’t find the body, has discovered clothes, shoes, luggage and purses left behind by border crossers.

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Last summer, he saw some men walking toward Canada in a ditch.

Wilwand is sympathetic towards migrants.

“I feel bad for people who don’t have anything or want to have a better life,” he said.

The Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement now requires people who illegally enter between ports of entry to be turned back to begin an asylum claim, if found within 14 days. There are limited exceptions.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Chris Kitching
Reporter

As a general assignment reporter, Chris covers a little bit of everything for the Free Press.

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