The U.S. side of the Manitoba-Minnesota border near where migrants walking from Canada were found frozen to death highlights the austere and perilous conditions.Photo by U.S. Border Patrol

Weather on day of family's deadly Canada-U.S. border crossing was unusually cold, trial hears

Prosecutors say the family of four Indian migrants froze to death Jan. 19, 2022, after spending hours wandering in heavy snow and bone-chilling cold

by · National Post

FERGUS FALLS, Minn. — An Indian migrant who survived a deadly trek across the Canada-U.S. border in blizzard conditions is expected to testify Tuesday in the federal trial of two men accused of taking part in a sprawling human smuggling scheme that ultimately killed a family of four.

Prosecutors allege Indian national Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, and Steve Shand, 50, put financial profit over human life when they attempted to smuggle Indian migrants across the border into Minnesota over a five-week period. They say Patel ran part of the smuggling scheme and recruited Shand as a driver. Both men have pleaded not guilty to four federal counts related to human smuggling.

Accused smugglers put 'profit over people’s lives' with Indian family that died at Canada-U.S. border: prosecutorsFERGUS FALLS, Minn. — Two men put financial profit over human life when they attempted to smuggle a couple from India and their two young children across the U.S.-Canada border in heavy snow and bone-chilling winds, leading to the family freezing to death, prosecutors said Monday.Michael Goldberg, 19 Nov 2024Inside the smuggling ring that left a family to freeze to death on a perilous walk across Canada's borderThe family of four that froze to death while trying to secretly walk into the United States from Manitoba during a blizzard were already waiting at the drop-off point in Canada when other Indian citizens arrived for the night hike across the border.Adrian Humphreys, 26 Jan 2022