NEW STUDY BY ADVOCACY GROUPS ALLEGES FEDERAL UNDERREPORTING OF MIGRANT DEATHS

Sam Karas, Big Bend Sentinel, 10 April 2024

FAR WEST TEXAS — On March 18, the nonprofit advocacy and rescue group No Más Muertes (No More Deaths) released a groundbreaking report detailing migrant deaths in Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) El Paso Sector, which spans all of New Mexico, El Paso and Hudspeth County. Data collected by the nonprofit suggests that the rate of migrants dying along the southwest border is skyrocketing — in their findings, No Más Muertes alleges that CBP is underreporting these deaths by as many as four times their actual figures. 

A NEW REPORT SHOWS SKYROCKETING DEATHS IN EL PASO, NEW MEXICO BORDER REGION

Melissa del Bosque, The Border Chronicle, 9 April 2024

As safe corridors for migration disappear, more people risk their lives crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. And more people die. A new report by the nonprofit No More Deaths, along with a searchable map and database, documents the increasing number of migrant deaths at the border in New Mexico and far West Texas. Until now, not much research has been done on the deaths of people migrating through this section of the border. The project was led by Bryce, a No More Deaths volunteer (who asked that we not use his last name because the Far Right has recently been targeting the group). He, along with several others, have created the most comprehensive database to date of deaths in the Border Patrol’s El Paso Sector, which includes New Mexico and two counties in Texas, El Paso and Hudspeth.

The report covers 15 years, from 2008 to 2023, and it shows many disturbing trends, including the acceleration of deaths that has accompanied “prevention through deterrence,” the U.S. government’s strategy implemented in the 1990s to push migrants into more remote, dangerous crossings. That strategy is now morphing into something all the more tragic as people, increasingly women and children, are barred from accessing asylum and are dying at the doorstep of American cities and towns. In this Q&A, Bryce talks about documenting these deaths, and the discoveries that both shocked and angered him in creating this new report.

GROUPS: CBP UNDERCOUNTING MIGRANT DEATHS ON THE BORDER

Julian Resendiz, Border Report, 8 April 2024

EL PASO, Texas – A regional humanitarian nonprofit says the federal government is undercounting migrant deaths and continues to engage in practices such as chases of suspected smugglers that result in third-party fatalities.

Research published in March by the Arizona-based No More Deaths shows two to four times as many migrants died in West Texas and Southern New Mexico in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020 than reported by the government. The deaths resulted from dehydration or hypothermia (depending on the season), falls from mountains or the border wall, drownings, being struck by motor vehicles and being injured during law-enforcement chases.

The group attributes the undercount – which it documents case-by-case in a public database with more than 400 deaths – to insufficient follow-up with hospitals, local police and medical examiners after border agents or officers come upon injured parties or skeletal remains.

MIGRANTS IN SASABE STUCK IN FREEZING TEMPS OVERNIGHT, INCLUDING FAMILIES

Danyelle Khmara, AZPM News, 13 February 2024

People began crossing the border Friday, in a remote area east of Sasabe, including many families with children.

Aid volunteer Bryce Peterson says Border Patrol only picked up a limited number of people, so aid groups began bringing migrants to the Border Patrol station in Sasabe.

“Throughout the course of the night another 200 people had showed up,” Peterson said. “So we were dealing with about 400 people who were all freezing cold, wet from being snowed and rained on. All the people that had been walking throughout the night were in really bad shape.”

Migrants have been crossing in that remote area for months, and aid groups are asking Border Patrol to set up a warming station and processing center in the remote area and increase processing capacity at the station in Sasabe.

Seemingly at odds with the aid workers’ account, Customs and Border Protection says they prioritized the humanitarian response to the migrants abandoned in the cold, triaged the situation and prioritized the most vulnerable migrants for transportation.

By Sunday morning, all the migrants had been taken into Border Patrol custody. There were no serious medical emergencies or deaths reported.

SOME LAWMAKERS WANT A CLAMPDOWN ON ASYLUM. AZ OFFICIALS AND AID WORKERS ALREADY FACE CHALLENGES

Alisa Reznick, KJZZ Fronteras Desk, 23 January 2024

Washington narrowly avoided a government shutdown this month. But lawmakers are still mulling a potential deal that would green-light military aid for Ukraine in exchange for crackdowns on asylum at the border. In the meantime, along remote stretches of the Arizona border, officials say that system is overwhelmed.

Nestled into the heart of the rugged Altar Valley a little more than an hour south of Tucson, Sasabe is a tiny border community encircled by wild desert grasslands and steep mountain ranges.

It’s home to a bright yellow country store, an elementary school, and a tiny border crossing that leads to Sasabe, Sonora. Only a few dozen people live here on the Arizona side. 

But it’s been at the epicenter of a lot of different border eras over the years.

COOLER TEMPERATURES BRING CONCERN FOR MIGRANTS WAITING TO BE PROCESSED NEAR LUKEVILLE BORDER

Emilee Miranda, 13 News, 4 January 2024

As temperatures continue to drop in Tucson, they are also declining in Lukeville as hundreds of asylum seekers wait along the wall to be processed by border patrol.

For months, thousands of migrants have been arriving in the Tucson sector. Many of them are sleeping and staying near the border wall until they can be transported elsewhere by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. As the migrant surge continues, the fundraising coordinator for No More Deaths said they are concerned about the cooler temperatures.

“Lows are getting down into the low 30s coming up, and we’re seeing so many people who are in great danger of injury and death from exposure, so anything helps,” said Danielle, fundraising coordinator for No More Deaths.

NO MORE DEATHS VOLUNTEERS EVACUATE MIGRANTS FROM ‘DIRE’ COLD AS CHRISTMAS NEARS IN REMOTE AZ DESERT

Paul Ingram, Tucson Sentinel, 24 December 2023

In the desert quiet, a little girl began to howl and cry. Her mother tried to comfort her, but they were both freezing, soaked to the bone in wet clothes and tucked beneath wide advertising banners tucked against the 30-foot-high wall miles in the desert wilderness east of Sasabe, Ariz.

All Friday—just days before Christmas— rain came down unabated and for a while lightning cracked across the sky. But, finally, the rain slowed to a drizzle and the moon pierced through clouds. As the girl cried, a volunteer with No More Deaths, a humanitarian organization based in Southern Arizona, rushed from trucks parked in the mud to help.

“IT’S LIKE CAMPING WITHOUT A TENT”: IN REMOTE SCC, LARGE GROUPS OF MIGRANTS AWAIT BORDER PATROL

Angela Gervasi, Nogales International, 7 December 2023

Over a recent December weekend in a western corner of Santa Cruz County, a man from Morocco leaned on crutches as he attempted to trek through the desert. Stationed near the U.S.-Mexico border fence, other migrants lit small bonfires in an effort to counteract the dwindling temperatures of nightfall.

These are two of the scenes humanitarian volunteers recounted to the NI as they described a relatively new entry point for large groups of asylum-seeking migrants: a rugged area west of Nogales and east of Sásabe.