A 9-year-old boy looking for help after his mother crashed their van in the southern Arizona desert was rescued by a man entering the U.S. illegally, who stayed with him until help arrived the next day, an official said.

The 45-year-old woman, who eventually died while awaiting help, had been driving on a U.S. Forest Service road in a remote area just north of the Mexican border when she lost control of her van on a curve on Thanksgiving, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada said. The van vaulted into a canyon and landed 300 feet from the road, he said. The woman, from Rimrock, north of Phoenix, survived the impact but was pinned inside, Estrada said. Her son, unhurt but disoriented, crawled out to get help and was found about two hours later by Jesus Manuel Cordova, 26, of Magdalena de Kino in the northern Mexican state of Sonora. Unable to pull the mother out, he comforted the boy while they waited for help. [...]

"He stayed with him, told him that everything was going to be all right," Estrada said.

As temperatures dropped, he gave him a jacket, built a bonfire and stayed with him until about 8 a.m. Friday, when hunters passed by and called authorities, Estrada said. The boy was flown to University Medical Center in Tucson as a precaution but appeared unhurt. [...]

"For a 9-year-old it has to be completely traumatic, being out there alone with his mother dead," Estrada said. "Fortunately for the kid, (Cordova) was there. That was his angel."

Cordova was taken into custody by Border Patrol agents, who were the first to respond to the call for help. He had been trying to walk into the U.S. when he came across the boy.

For those of you familiar with the parables of Jesus, doesn't this remind you of the Good Samaritan? And isn't it somehow emblematic of our era, where we are constantly reminded that we are a "Christian Nation" that this humble man's good deed in saving a nine year old child was rewarded by his arrest and detention by the Border Patrol.

A great shame really. But it ought to be a lesson to all those on the right who are so quick to portray "illegal aliens" as subhuman, as enemies and threats to our security. In fact they are simply fellow human beings, like us. Indeed, some, like Mr. Cordova, may even be better human beings than many of us. How many of us would have stayed with that boy through the night until help arrived, knowing that by doing so we would likely be arrested for the "crime" of wanting a better life? How many would have simply abandoned him to save their own neck? How many would have shown the decency to be so selfless? I don't know the answer to those questions, but I do know this. Mr. Cordova should be lauded for his heroism, and in a just world he would be rewarded in some fashion. Instead, he will be punished for the crime of being born on the wrong side of the border. There's something terribly wrong about that, is there not?

My apologies Jesus Manuel Cordova. You have more than lived up to the ideals of your namesake. I'm sorry so many Americans who claim allegiance to that same person's teachings choose to ignore your humanity, and the humanity of all those who live outside our borders.