Death on the Border: Missing in the US desert: finding the migrants dying on the trail north
Picture on the right, Mexico–United States barrier at the border of Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego, USA. The crosses represent migrants who died in the crossing attempt. Some identified, some not. Surveillance tower in the background.
Last year, 322 deaths were recorded along the US border with Mexico. The real number could be a lot higher. Alex Hannaford for The Guardian joins volunteers searching for the lost and tells the story of the searches for the casualties. He summarizes the pattern of deaths as follows:
“Last year, there were officially 322 deaths along the US border with Mexico. Human remains were found in the deserts and remote ranchland in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California. In the past decade there have been 4,205. It’s an estimation because these are just those they have recovered. There are probably hundreds more hidden under trees in that scorched Arizona desert alone. All were migrants: men, women and children heading north for a better life, often carrying just the clothes they were wearing.”
KJ