Immigrant of the Day: Jesus Manuel Cordova (Mexico)

Our Immigrant of the Day is Jesus Manuel Cordova, the hero who saved a young boy in the desert whose mother died in an auto accident on Thanksgiving Day.  Cordova cared for a 9-year-old boy found wandering alone after his mother died in a canyon crash near the U.S./Mexico border in southern Arizona. The boy was looking for help after his mother crashed her van off a cliff on Thanksgiving Day.  Unable to pull the mother out of the car, Cordova comforted the boy while they waited for help. The woman unfortunately died a short time later.

"[Cordova] stayed with [the boy], told him that everything was going to be all right," the local sherriff said. As temperatures dropped, he gave him a jacket, built a bonfire and stayed with him until about 8 a.m. Friday morning, when a group of hunters passed by and called authorities.

Cordova was taken into custody by Border Patrol agents. He had been trying to walk into the U.S. when he came across the boy.  Cordova was returned to Mexico where he was later interviewed; he mentioned that he watched over the boy in the desert because he was thinking about his own four children in Mexico and could not leave him alone while he completed his journey to Tucson.

Click here for our original post on this story and a link to a news report, and here for more about this story.

UPDATE  AP later reported that Cordova, who rescued a 9-year-old after the boy's mother died in a car accident in the southern Arizona desert, was honored on December 4 by U.S. and Mexican officials at a border crossing. He stood by shyly with his mother and stepfather as officials talked about his efforts to save Christopher Buchleitner on Thanksgiving. The district director for U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., said Cordova deserved the opportunity to come to America to work and that the congressman plans to introduce legislation that will let him get a special visa. Such legislation rarely passes, but Grijalva aide Ruben Reyes said it was the only way they knew of to show their thanks.

KJ