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Big surge in border-crossing deaths reported
Alan Gomez, USA TODAY9:21p.m. EDT March 18, 2013
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/03/18/immigrant-border-deaths/1997379/
Story Highlights
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Immigrant deaths on southwest border up 27% even as Mexican migration slows.
Rise in deaths may increase support for immigration overhaul bill.
Increase in Border Patrol agents has driven immigrants to more treacherous areas.
Fewer people are illegally crossing America's southwest border with Mexico, but the
region saw a big increase in immigrant deaths in 2012, according to a report set to be released
Tuesday.
U.S. Border Patrol identified 477 deaths along the southwest border, up from 375 the
year before, according to the report from the National Foundation for American Policy, an
Arlington, Va.-based group that researches immigration issues. That 27% increase in deaths
comes even as total migration from Mexico has slowed in recent years.
Stuart Anderson, executive director of the foundation and author of the report, said the rise in
deaths may add support to the drive for a complete immigration overhaul that is being negotiated
in Congress.
"The primary reason that people are dying is that there's not a legal work visa for them to
come legally," Anderson said. "These are rational people who are trying to work and support
their families. If you had a widely available, legal work visa ... they would choose to come in
legally."
Customs and Border Protection spokesman Bill Brooks said they also saw a 25% increase in
rescues of people struggling to make the journey in 2012. He said over 900 Border Patrol agents
are trained emergency medical technicians and that the agency has been installing emergency
beacons to help stranded immigrants.
"CBP works hard to avoid loss of life among those who attempt to enter the U.S. illegally,"
Brooks said. "CBP reminds those who might consider attempting to illegally cross of the dangers
involved, from smugglers who may seek to exploit them to harsh physical conditions."
Part of the reason for the rise in deaths is the increase in Border Patrol agents that has driven
immigrants to more remote, treacherous areas along the border.
Geoff Boyce, a spokesman for No More Deaths, an Arizona volunteer organization that
places up to 4,000 gallons of water along immigration routes each month, said most illegal
immigrants in the state are now going through a region that encompasses 900 square miles and
only two paved roads.
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He said the journey can be made under 110-degree days in the summer, below-freezing
nights in the winter and rare sightings of fresh, clean water. He said the trek usually takes about
three to four days, but it can take as long as a week if a group gets lost or someone gets sick.
"Even the healthiest person is going to have a hard time surviving in those kinds of
conditions," Boyce said.
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Arizona: Naming the dead from the desert
Robin Reineke, doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona's School of Anthropology
BBC News http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21029783
Jan. 16, 2013
[It's the job of a forensics team in Arizona to identify the bodies of migrants found in the desert.
Anthropologist Robin Reineke describes how she pieces together the sad jigsaw puzzle of
personal attributes and belongings.]
There are many ways to enter the US. The way that's taken by the very poorest is to come through the
Sonoran Desert on foot.
It's a very forbidding place - the temperatures in the summertime are regularly in the triple digits
Fahrenheit and there's no water.
Groups of people will walk for three to five days, travelling by night and drinking out of cattle troughs or
whatever they can find. It's unlikely they will see other people for the duration of the trip.
At present, Tucson, Arizona has almost 800 unidentified bodies of migrants who didn't make it to the
other side.
They were found by border patrol, by citizens of the Tohono O'odham Indian reservation, or by ranchers
or hikers. I compare these unidentified remains to lists we have of missing persons, collected from
families of migrants last known to have been attempting the crossing.
When there is a possible match, I call the family.
Recently, I called the wife of a missing man. "There's someone who could potentially be your husband," I
told her. "Can I ask you some questions?
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"Did he have any tattoos? You said that he was missing an upper molar. Could you tell me more about
that?"
One day in the desert heat is enough to make a body unrecognisable, so the possessions that are found
with the remains can be incredibly important to the family.
There's often an interesting combination of objects. Mostly it is the normal stuff that anyone would take
with them on a trip - toothpaste, socks, snacks, water.
But then there are these very personal items - photographs of loved ones, handwritten notes from family
members, kids' drawings.
The letters are from the children or wives of those we've found dead, wishing them luck and telling them
that they're loved, that they should be very careful on the journey, that the family's prayers are with them,
that the family's hopes are with them.
And the photos have been touched and pulled out over and over again, then folded up and put back
carefully.
Some of the items have unspoken stories.
There was a young kid - he was probably only 15 or 16 years old - and the soles of his shoes were just
completely worn off. He had been carrying one orange paper flower.
I remember a man who had a small dead hummingbird in his pocket. I know that for a lot of indigenous
North American peoples hummingbirds hold a sacred significance - they represent hope and love and
they're a powerful protective symbol.
With certain objects, my familiarity with Mexican and Central American cultures helps me to make a
guess about where someone came from.
For example, many migrants carry prayer cards - small cards with a saint or a holy scene printed on them
with an accompanying prayer. A prayer card of the Virgin of Juquila is likely to have belonged to a
Oaxacan traveller, since it is there that she is venerated.
You can think of it like a puzzle - a puzzle which has a great deal of importance to a lot of people.
While most anthropologists who work in human identification are physical or forensic anthropologists
who specialise in skin and bone, I am a cultural anthropologist focused on the social world.
My training helps me bridge the gap between forensic scientists and the families of the missing, who are
generally indigenous people.
The forensic scientists and I have a lot of faith in science, which is a belief system. It requires trust in
officials, in the scientific method, in technology. Many families of missing migrants are coming from
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communities in Mexico or Central America that have been violated for centuries by officials, scientists
and technologies. There is a lot of mistrust.
Moreover, the family is looking for something recognisable, something that carries the trace of the person
they knew.
They can get fixated on details scientists might consider nearly irrelevant, like the buttons on a pair of
trousers or a brand of tennis shoes. These are things that have meaning to them. They are also things that
someone can change, unlike their DNA or fingerprints.
So while I might be trying to arrange a DNA comparison with a family, they'll be asking to see photos of
the remains. Sometimes they show up in my office, having driven for hours, asking to see the body.
Generally, we don't allow this unless the dead person is recognisable. Some might argue that it is not our
job to protect families from the truth. But if they see an unrecognisable, decomposed corpse or skeleton,
they may not only be traumatised, they may simply reject the identification. I've been involved in a few of
cases where we have come very close to a positive ID and the family suddenly rejects involvement or
says we're lying.
Because of the highly decomposed nature of the bodies, the calls I make are never as simple as, "I am
sorry to inform you…" Instead, it's the beginning of a process that could take months. It unfolds as a kind
of a negotiation between the scientists and the families. Both sides have the same goal - to find the
missing person.
But for the scientists, the problem is an unidentified dead body, whereas for the families, the problem is a
missing living person. These realities pull them in opposite directions.
And, coming after a long period of not hearing anything, these are months of agony for families. What
they have already endured is terrifying. You cannot grieve without a body - without certainty that the
person is gone. Every single day that you are living a normal life, you know they could be suffering.
Continue reading the main story
Case ML #10-01482
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The owner of the possessions above was found on 25 July 2010, partially suspended from a tree
by his shoelaces
He was part of a large group of Guatemalans attempting to cross the border that summer
Reineke made a trip to Guatemala to meet the families of the missing, but this man has never
been identified
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The family of Martin Mejia Gomez, who is missing. He
was travelling with his 14-year-old cousin whose body was found and identified
One case that stands out is a large group of Guatemalans that were all from the same town, who attempted
to cross in the summer of 2010.
The man who was leading the group had crossed before, maybe five or 10 years earlier. But the border
had completely changed - it is a lot more difficult to cross over now. The man got lost with this whole
group of friends and relatives following him.
One of them was able to call his wife and tell her that they were lost, that they had been walking for seven
days, that they were out of food and water, that some of the group had been vomiting blood, that they
knew they were going to die.
I received all the reports of the missing and a big sleuthing operation began. Three sets of bodies were
found in different locations, months apart. We were able to identify five of them. The other seven or eight
remain missing.
I went to Guatemala with my husband in the summer of 2011 to meet the families of the dead and missing
from this group. I was struck by the difference between those whose loved ones had been identified and
those who were still waiting.
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Even with the knowledge that the whole group had been lost in the desert, and that some of them had
come home in coffins, the families of the missing were distraught - sickened by the condition of not
knowing. Their faces are burned into my memory.
Mexican Migration into the USA
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Around 12m people have immigrated to the US from Mexico in the last 40 years
Just over half of these were unauthorised immigrants
In the last five years net migration from Mexico has fallen to zero because of the effect of the US
recession, increased border enforcement and the falling birth rate in Mexico
In 2005, more than a million Mexicans were arrested attempting to cross the border illegally - by
2011, the figure had fallen to 286,000
I won't pretend that I have an easy job and that I don't take some of it home. I work with an incredible
team, who have taught me everything. And I have a wonderful husband and a fuzzy dog at home to keep
me sane.
And I feel very honoured to be doing this work. The unidentified are here in Tucson and I feel an
obligation to them.
The immigration issue is tough but it's not intractable.
For me, it's frustrating that there is so much attention on the physical line of the border, and on border
security. When hundreds are dying each year, their bodies rotting in the desert, we have to think about
what is an effective border, what is effective security - and security for whom? It is time to really think
about what we have done as a continent to cause people to risk their lives in such large numbers.
Immigrants are being blamed for a lot at the moment - they're being scapegoated. I feel that these people
were, by and large, good, hard-working people that did not mean any harm. By attempting the crossing
they were trying to do the very best for their families.
I would definitely do the same thing.
Robin Reineke spoke to Outlook on the BBC World Service. Listen back to the interview via iplayer or
browse the Outlook podcast archive. You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook