| Deadly Crossings
Since 1994 over 5,000 immigrants have died trying to cross the U.S.-Mexican border. Migrants must cross the treacherous terrain of the Sonoran desert, where temperatures often soar above 110 degrees in the summer. Migrants hike for days, with little shade and even less water. This page is dedicated to those who have perished seeking a better life for themselves and for their families.
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July Proves Deadly for Migrants July was the second-deadliest month on record for illegal immigrants crossing in Southern Arizona, with 59 bodies ending up at the Pima County Medical Examiner's Office.
The month's total ranks second only to the 69 deaths recorded by the office in July 2005.
The death toll began early in the month and continued at such a fast pace the office had to bring in additional storage space to house the bodies.
The deadly month brings the calendar year-to-date total through July for the Pima County Medical Examiner's Office to 153, ahead of the past two years at the same time and only slightly behind the 159 handled through the same date in the 2007, a record-breaking year.
Border agents find teen, mom's body northwest of Tucson A 15-year-old illegal border crosser dumped by smugglers northwest of Tucson was found early Monday along with his mother's body, officials said.The boy called 911 saying that his mother had fainted and might be dead. The Pima County Sheriff's Office transferred the call to the Border Patrol at about 3:30 a.m., said agency spokeswoman Colleen Agle.
When agents from the Border Patrol's search and rescue team found the two near Avra Valley and Pump Station roads the mother was dead, Agle said. The location is about 25 miles northwest of downtown Tucson.The teen told agents smugglers had kicked them out of a vehicle because the mother, 44, was sick, Agle said. They are believed to be from Mexico.
She was one of two illegal border crossers found dead in the last two days.
On Monday, agents found the body of a 48-year-old man from Mexico in the Baboquivari Mountains southeast of Sells on the Tohono O'odham Nation, Agle said.From Oct. 1 to March 31, the latest figures available, agents in the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector recovered the bodies of 87 illegal immigrants, up from 66 through the same time period in fiscal year 2009.
Recent Abuse Interviews from Nogales No More Deaths volunteers working in Nogales continue to document and denounce abuses experienced in custody by deported migrants and immigrants. The following interviews were conducted in the last week.
Interview conducted 15 April 2010. Interviewee E----- T-----, from Oaxaca, reported that he was apprehended in October in the desert and was held for six months in Holbrook after going to Streamline in Tucson. He was held in extreme cold with no blankets and was told by Border Patrol, "Shut your mouth," "You're trash," and "You should speak English in my country."
Interview conducted 15 April 2010. Interviewee, A----- A----- L-----, from Mexico, who reported that while in custody in Yuma on 24 March Border Patrol threw away all of her possessions, including medicine. She was also kicked in the stomach and did not receive any medical attention. When No More Deaths volunteers met her on 15 April she reported continued pain in her abdomen. She also reported that when she was apprehended in the desert with a group Border Patrol handcuffed everyone in the group to one another and made them walk in a line for twenty minutes in the dark. She fell because it was difficult to walk and they pushed her. She has a son in Oregon.
Interview conducted 15 April 2010. Interviewee, L----- A------P-----, reported that he had lived in Phoenix since 1999. On 6 December 2009 at approximately 8pm he was pulled over by Phoenix police while driving and thrown on the ground and beaten, breaking his nose and dislocating his knee. He was then held in ICE Custody, Phoenix-West M53, until the first week of April. At no time while in custody did he receive medical attention, and went to court with his face "covered with blood." His nose and knee healed incorrectly and his forehead and right side of his face are covered with scars from the assault. The first name of one of the officers who beat him is J-----. He never had access to a lawyer. He also reported that the police robbed him of $90 that he had in his possession at the time.
Interview conducted 15 April 2010. Interviewee, young man from Mexico, reported that when apprehended in the desert on 13 April 2010 at approximately 6pm, the Border Patrol burned his belongings in front of him, saying "this is trash." He and another man who was present with him during the interview reported that while held in custody in Nogales, AZ, the center was extremely cold and they were held for two days without receiving food, only crackers. The man who was with him, who also wished to remain anonymous, reported that the Border Patrol agents said, "We're going to kill you."
Interview conducted 15 April 2010. Interviewee man from Mexico who wished to remain anonymous, reported that while in custody in Tucson he witnessed someone beaten by two agents with the names R----- and C-----. He reported that guards threw food at them and called them dogs. He was in custody from 12 April until 15 April 2010.
No More Deaths Volunteers Discover, Help Recover Body of Migrant Tucson, AZ--Several volunteers with the humanitarian organization No More Deaths encountered the body of a deceased migrant approximately 2 miles east of Ruby, AZ on Tuesday, February 9. The volunteers immediately contacted the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office to help recover the body; officials estimated that the individual had been deceased for at least six-seven months. The individual has yet to be identified.
Kevin Riley, age 27, was among a group of 5 volunteers who encountered the body around 3pm. Says Riley, "We were on a day-long humanitarian patrol and were walking a narrow canyon that none of us had traveled before. As we walked the canyon we found a shallow grave partially covered in small rocks adorned with a hand-made cross."
More than 61 bodies of unauthorized migrants have been recovered in southern Arizona between October 1, 2009 and January 31, 2010 (FY2010), according to Tucson's Coalición de Derechos Humanos. This represents a 36% increase over the same period last year.
Wet Winter is Deadly for Border Crossers Enrique Zapata Senduo's life ended in a pool of muddy water underneath a cottonwood tree in the desert southwest of Picacho Peak.
A rancher discovered the soaking-wet body of the 47-year-old Mexican in the late morning on Jan. 26. Zapata left his hometown of Mazatlan, Sinaloa, on Jan. 13 and planned to cross the border near Sasabe illegally, meaning he was likely out in the desert during the rainy days of Jan. 20-23, when nearly 2 inches fell in Southern Arizona.
Getting wet in the winter can be deadly, said Dr. Bruce Parks, chief medical examiner at the Pima County Medical Examiner's Office. Parks determined Zapata died from hypothermia, or exposure to the cold.
This year's unusually wet winter in Southern Arizona has been lethal for illegal border crossers. Zapata was one of three illegal immigrants found that week in January who died of hypothermia. Nine of the people found since Nov. 1 were determined to have died from hypothermia - as many as the previous three winters combined.
"When you are wet, your risk is a lot higher," Parks said. "Wet clothing takes the heat away from the body. You've lost that insulation - your body can't react."
It hasn't been colder than usual this winter, but it has been wetter.
No Signs of Letup in Entrant Deaths The final fiscal year 2009 tally of border deaths confirms a lethal trend: illegal border crossers face a deadlier trek than ever across Arizona's desert.
The 241,600 apprehensions made in the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector marked a 10-year low, Border Patrol figures show. These figures, along with declining remittances from the U.S. to Mexico and anecdotal reports that the economic recession has slowed illegal immigration, point to a dramatic slowdown in illegal border crossings.
Yet the213 bodies of suspected illegal border crossers found in the Tucson Sector are the third-most ever, behind 230 in 2005 and 223 in 2007, the Arizona Daily Star's border-death database shows. That means the risk of dying is more than twice as high today compared with five years ago and nearly 30 times greater than in 1998.
Border-county law enforcement, Mexican Consulate officials, Tohono O'odham tribal officials and humanitarian groups say the increase in fencing, technology and agents has caused illegal border crossers to walk longer distances in more treacherous terrain, increasing the likelihood that people will get hurt or fatigued and left behind to die.
Known border deaths per 100,000 Border Patrol apprehensions, by federal fiscal year:
Federal Judge Threatens NMD Volunteer with 25 Days Imprisonment Tucson, AZ--At a hearing on Friday, December 4, No More Deaths volunteer Walt Staton was threatened with 25 days imprisonment for leaving clean drinking water along known migrant trails in the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge (BANWR). Federal Magistrate Jennifer Guerin denied Mr. Staton's motion to modify or suspend his sentence pending appeal, and scheduled a probation violation hearing for December 21st.
Staton, a seminary student at Claremont School of Theology, was originally sentenced to 300 hours of community service on August 11, 2009. In a letter to the judge delivered prior to today's hearing, Staton stated that he cannot comply with the original sentence, adding: "When a government fails to respect and protect basic human rights--or, worse, is itself a violator--it is the responsibility of citizens to act in defense of those rights." A copy of the lettersent to Magistrate Guerin is available at www.nomoredeaths.org.
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Border Patrol Arrests
A new report says border deaths of illegal immigrants have increased despite a sharp decrease in Border Patrol apprehensions.
The report, by the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial counties and Mexico's National Commission on Human Rights, calls on U.S. and Mexican officials to recognize migrant deaths along the border as an international humanitarian crisis and take steps to reduce the number, including devoting more Border Patrol agents to search and rescue efforts.
The Border Patrol says they found 378 bodies near the border during the 11-month period that ended Aug. 31. The number is expected to exceed the 390 bodies found during the previous fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, 2008.
More than half of the 378 bodies found this year were found in the Tucson sector. The Tucson sector found 191 bodies through Aug. 31. That is 31 more than the 159 bodies found during the same 11-month period the year before. September's numbers haven't been counted yet. But the 191 number already exceeds by 20 the 171 bodies found during the entire 2008 fiscal year.
Apprehensions, meanwhile are down 24 percent in the Tucson sector through Aug. 31 of this fiscal year, compared to the same period last year, according to the Border Patrol.
With 226,344 apprehensions recorded through Aug. 31, the Tucson sector will likely record the fewest number of apprehensions in at least eight years.
Escalante said apprehensions are down because more agents, technology and enforcement have made it harder for migrants to cross, so fewer are trying. At the same time, smugglers are taking migrants through more remote areas to evade stepped up enforcement, making it riskier to cross.
Fourteen Year-Old Migrant Girl Found Dead On February 20, 2008, while leaving water and picking up trash along the border, NMD volunteer, Dan Millis, found the body of a fourteen year old girl from El Salvador. Two days later, with that image fresh in his mind, federal officers issued him a 'littering' ticket. Fighting this absurd charge was an ordeal for him, and has recently seen his colleague Walt Staton fight an even harsher battle. Thirteen of our fellow 'litterers' had their first federal hearing today.
No More Deaths-Phoenix has signed on to the letter circulated by No More Deaths requesting that U.S. officials meet with humanitarian groups to find a way to provide water for migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Thanks to your overwhelming support, No More Deaths, Samaritans, and Humane Borders have initiated a series of negotiations with the highest levels of federal government.
183 Remains Recovered in Arizona
Five Weeks Left in the Fiscal Year, the Count Has Already Reached Last Year's Total
Arizona— The number of human remains recovered on the Arizona-Sonora border since October 1, 2008 has reached 183 three weeks into the month of August. With five weeks left in the fiscal year, the count has already reached the fiscal year total for 2007-08. From the beginning of the fiscal year to the end of July, 162 human remains were recovered—this figure does not reflect any of the 21 remains recovered through August 24th.
The compilation of data from medical examiner reports from Pima, Yuma, and Cochise counties is an attempt to reflect more accurately the human cost of irresponsible U.S. border and immigration policies. The count of 183 includes 121 males, 27 females, and 34 individuals of unknown gender (19% of the total). The number includes 98 individuals of unknown identity, which is approximately 54% of the total recovered. The identification of at least 29 of the unknown individuals is hampered by the fact that only skeletal remains were recovered. The remains of 168 individuals had been recovered at the same time last fiscal year.
"While the media has hailed the efforts of the Border Patrol in rescuing migrants, nobody questions the policies that are pushing migrants further and further into the gauntlet of death" says Kat Rodriguez of Derechos Humanos. "How disingenuous is our government to applaud itself for taking measures to rescue people from the danger that it has placed them in? This is precisely why proposals to reform immigration must not agree to more militarization of our borders and communities. Our community security must come before any political gain sought or misinformed media hype."
"In addition to the staggering number of recovered remains reported, Derechos Humanos has received a record number of reports of missing migrants." continues Rodriguez. "There are countless cases of individuals who have never been heard from again.
Four Illegal Immigrants' Bodies Found Recently on O'odham Land The bodies of four illegal immigrants were recovered over the weekend on the Tohono O'odham Nation.
A Sunday evening discovery of two dead women originated from a Border Patrol encounter with a 16-year-old boy from Mexico City on the northern part of the reservation at about 4 p.m., said Mike Scioli, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman.
The boy told agents that his 64-year-old grandmother had been left behind. He said that he and his grandmother had been walking without food and water for three days, drinking only Red Bull energy drinks and taking pain pills, Scioli said.
The Border Patrol launched a search that included a Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine helicopter and agents from the agency's search, trauma and rescue team, Borstar. Nearly two hours later, they found two dead women south of Federal Route 42 near the village of North Komelik, about 40 miles northwest of Marana.
One of them was the boy's grandmother. The other has not yet been identified, Scioli said.
Earlier on Sunday afternoon, agents recovered skeletal remains south of the village of Cockleburr, about 12 miles north of the other bodies. A resident of the area called the Border Patrol and told agents that he had found the remains about two miles west of the village. It was unclear if the remains were of a man or a woman, Scioli said.
The fourth body was discovered on Friday southeast of Sells in the foothills of the Baboquivari Mountains, about 60 miles southwest of Tucson. The recovery was launched when a man called the Border Patrol by cell phone to tell agents that he was dehydrated and needed help, and had spotted another man in really bad shape, Scioli said.
Agents went to the area and, after treating the caller with fluids, began backtracking the caller's footprints in an attempt to find the other man in distress. About a half-hour later, they found the man's body in the foothills about four miles west of the village of Choulic, Scioli said. They found no identification or personal belongings.
The caller was not related to the dead man and did not have any information about him. The caller was taken to a Border Patrol processing center to be set up for return to Mexico, Scioli said.
At least 11 bodies have been discovered in the past seven days across Arizona's stretch of U.S.-Mexico border from New Mexico to Yuma County. From Jan. 1 through the date, at least 135 bodies have been found along that stretch, up from 120 at the same time last year, medical examiners' records show.
97 Illegal Immigrants Found in Chilled Trailer PHOENIX — An Arizona officer who stopped a refrigerated trailer found nearly 100 undocumented immigrants crammed inside in near-freezing temperatures.
The officer discovered 97 people, including children as young as 9. The trailer was carrying fruit and chilled to 34-degrees. Temperatures outside were in the mid 80's, according to the National Weather Service in Tucson.
The U.S. Border Patrol and Customs took custody of the undocumented immigrants, who the Department of Public Safety said were from Mexico and Guatemala.
Guatemalan Man Dies After Walking 6 Days in Desert
Immigrant is 21st found dead in '09 in Cochise County
Cochise County sheriff's deputies recovered the body of a 22-year-old Guatemalan man east of Sierra Vista who died after walking for six days without food and water in an attempt to enter the United States illegally.
A man at the scene told deputies that he was driving south on Moson Road when a man waved him over and told him that he thought his friend was dead. Deputies spotted a man lying in a tall patch of grass with his head being held by another man.
Paramedics arrived and pronounced the man dead. He was identified as Rogelio Antonio Rodas, 22, of Guatemala, Capas said. The man holding his head identified himself as Bersian Mendez-Perez, 31, of Chiapas, Mexico.
Mendez-Perez told deputies that he and Rodas had crossed the border six days earlier with a large group. He said they had been walking for six days without food or water. Rodas has been sick for two days, he said.
Someone came to pick them up in a car south of Sierra Vista on Wednesday but refused to continue with Rodas on board for fear he might die, Mendez-Perez told deputies.
The driver left Rodas and Mendez-Perez at Moson Road. Mendez-Perez told deputies that Rodas appeared to have died about 30 minutes before he went to get help.
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