A Chinese illegal immigrant lost in the Arizona desert said he was forced to abandon his brother in the desert and to drink his own urine to survive.

Authorities rescued both brothers and arrested a Mexican man on charges of smuggling them across the border.

Dong Xie told Border Patrol agents that he and his brother, Ming Xie, were led over the boundary by foot guide Miguel Martinez-Meraz and began making their way through the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, an unforgiving expanse of wilderness.

At some point, Dong Xie said, his brother began to lag behind and Mr. Martinez beat him. After Min Xie couldn’t go any farther, Mr. Martinez threatened Dong Xie with a knife, telling him to abandon his brother and continue north without him or else be killed.

Mr. Martinez and Dong Xie continued on, but the guide got lost.

“They were running low on water, and the guide took Dong Xie’s remaining water and told him to drink his urine to hydrate since there was not enough water for both of them,” an agent said in a court filing.

He said Mr. Martinez continued to beat Dong Xie until the Chinese man couldn’t go on, and Mr. Martinez was out of water. They called 911.

“The guide made hand gestures to zip his mouth and not say anything to [Border Patrol agents] when they arrived,” the agent recounted.

A Border Patrol helicopter responding to the 911 call’s GPS location spotted the two men next to a campfire and summoned agents to the spot to make the rescue.

For his part, Min Xie told agents that after he was abandoned, the guide returned on his own and beat him another time, then pulled a knife and robbed the Chinese man of his personal items.

Min Xie said he climbed a hill and spotted a blue light — apparently one of the rescue beacons placed throughout the Southwest for lost migrants — and made the 911 call that drew agents to his rescue.

In addition to the smuggling charge, Mr. Martinez has been charged with illegal reentry after a previous deportation. The Border Patrol said in the court documents that he was deported last February.

Both Chinese men said they paid $3,000 to be smuggled over the boundary and said they each wandered five days between the time they were separated and when they were rescued.

The Washington Times maintains a database of border smuggling cases, and it has shown an uptick in prosecutions of smugglers attempting to bring Chinese migrants into the U.S. in recent weeks.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.