Death on the Border Likely to Continue in a Trump Administration?
Donald Trump has promised an expansion of the “wall” between United States and Mexico. After the inauguration, He presumably will seek congressional appropriations for the expansion.
One impact of the wall may be an increasing number of deaths of migrants as they try to evade the wall while it is under construction. Death on the border unfortunately has been a routine occurrence in the border region for many years and will not likely be reduced by the immigration policies of Trump administration.
The Washington Post today offers a sobering account of the formidable challenges in identifying human remains found along the US/Mexico border.
SCATTERED REMAINS: In one 10-county swath of Texas, more than 100 migrants have died this year trying to enter the United States. Here, Webb County Sheriff’s Deputy Mauro Lopez reaches for a human skull found alongside a ranch road in the South Texas city of Laredo. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)
A PAUPER’S BURIAL: The Webb County medical examiner’s office has an identification success rate of about 75 percent, but when the deceased cannot be identified, they are eventually buried in the pauper section of Laredo’s City Cemetery. Here, a burial site’s marker reads “John Doe.” (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post).
KJ