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In the United States, the arrival of Joe Biden to the presidency two years ago has caused significant migratory movements on the southern border. Many migrants are hoping for an opening after the repressive policies of the Trump years. In 2022, more than 2.4 million people were apprehended by the US Border Patrol, up from 1.6 million in 2021. More and more migrants are losing their lives on this risky journey. Some 853 migrants were found dead last year on the US side. In California, Arizona and Texas, there are civil organizations that search for the bodies of these missing migrants in the desert and fight for them to be identified and returned to their families.
By RFI Mexico City correspondent Emmanuelle Steels.
Vicente Rodríguez founded the Californian organization Águilas del Desierto 10 years ago. Once or twice a month, his group of volunteers go on expeditions in the Arizona desert and various border regions. These are search and rescue operations. “Actually, we mostly look for the dead. Sometimes we find missing migrants who are still alive, but more often we find dead people. Last year we found 22 bodies, and the year before, 28,” he explains.
Águilas del Desierto also carries out important prevention work on the Mexican side. Its members visit the many immigrant reception centers along the border to warn those who would like to cross the border of the risks they face. “Lack of water is one of the main causes of death for these migrants, coupled with the long distances they have to travel. In Arizona, they sometimes have to walk up to 100 miles. And the heat can reach 48 degrees,” he says. Vincent Rodriguez.
a treacherous river
The number of migrants drowning in the Rio Grande, which on the Mexican side is called the Rio Bravo, is also constantly increasing. Those who know the area say that it is a treacherous river, which hides violent currents under its apparent calm.
In recent years, immigrant organizations have realized that the dead found were often never identified, as Maureen Meyer of the US NGO WOLA reports: “In South Texas, in particular, there was negligence. Each time more bodies were found and everything was in chaos. Some were buried in mass graves. Now it is civil society that works to identify them, not the authorities.”
The South Texas Center for Human Rights has launched a program for the exhumation of bodies sent to mass graves in order to identify them. Eduardo Canales, its director, denounces the indolence of the authorities. “We learned a few years ago that Brooks County, where we’re based, doesn’t take DNA samples from these dead bodies, even though they are required by law to do so. And that county is a death row for criminals.” migrants. In Texas, every county does what they want. It’s really a disaster,” he says.
A locked system
In this region of the extreme south of Texas, more than 200 bodies of migrants have been found in the last two years. Eduardo Canales accuses Gov. Greg Abbott of cutting funds for identification and redirecting them to operations to secure the border: “It’s ridiculous to force migrants to come by river, through the desert, when they come here to work,” he says.
Refugees from Central and South America have virtually no chance to apply for asylum in the United States, which has blocked its system. Their desperation drives them to these dangerous crossings, according to Maureen Meyer: “This strategy of sealing the border and all these police measures push migrants to take alternative, longer and riskier routes, and to let themselves be carried away by traffickers, at the cost of their lives”.
Current immigration policies have a human cost: 853 people died last year trying to cross the border.
