Migrants in the United States: in search of the missing bodies in the desert
Audio 03:21
Rescue of Central American migrants in the Rio Bravo, on the border between Mexico and the United States (file image).
Julio Cesar AGUILAR / AFP
Text by: Emmanuelle Steels
4 mins
In the United States, the arrival of Joe Biden in power two years ago caused significant migratory movements on the southern border.
Many migrants seek an opening after the repressive policies of the Trump years.
In 2022, more than 2.4 million people were arrested by the American border patrol, and they were 1.6 million in 2021. More and more migrants are also losing their lives during this risky crossing.
Some 853 migrants were found dead last year on the American side.
In California, Arizona and Texas, there are civil organizations that search for the bodies of these migrants who disappeared in the desert and fight for them to be identified and returned to their families.
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From our correspondent in Mexico City,
Vicente Rodríguez founded the organization Águilas del Desierto
, The Eagles of the Desert, based in California
ten years ago .
Once or twice a month, his group of volunteers goes on expeditions to the Arizona desert and several border regions.
These are search and rescue operations.
“
In reality,
he explains,
we are mainly looking for the dead.
Sometimes also missing migrants who are still alive, but more often we find dead people.
Last year we found 22 bodies, and the year before 28.
”
The Desert Eagles also carry out important prevention work on the Mexican side.
They go through the many refuges for migrants along the border, to warn candidates for the crossing of the risks they run.
“
Lack of water is one of the main causes of death for these migrants, combined with the long distances they have to travel,
” continues Vicente Rodríguez.
In Arizona, they sometimes have to walk up to 100 miles.
And the heat can reach 48 degrees.
»
► To read also:
In Mexico, Biden and Lopez Obrador show a cordial relationship, but tensions remain
A treacherous river
The number of migrants who drown in the Rio Grande, which is called Rio Bravo on the Mexican side, is also constantly increasing.
Those who know the region say that it is a treacherous river, which conceals under an apparent calm violent currents.
In recent years, migrant defense organizations have realized that the dead found are often never identified, as reported by Maureen Meyer of the American NGO
WOLA
: "
In South Texas, in particular, there is had negligence.
More and more bodies were discovered and it was chaos.
Some were buried in mass graves.
Currently, it is civil society that works to identify them, not the authorities.
»
As @POTUS @lopezobrador_ & @CanadianPM meet this week in Mexico City at the North American Leaders' Summit (NALS), thousands of people continue to flee danger in our region – & current policies continue to deny many the right to ask for asylum.
https://t.co/D9capYvUrO
— WOLA (@WOLA_org) January 9, 2023
► To read also:
Immigration to the United States, a “broken” system
The South Texas Center for Human Rights has set up a program of exhumations of bodies sent to mass graves, so that they can be identified.
Eduardo Canales, its director, denounces the indolence of the authorities.
“
A few years ago, we realized that Brooks County, where we are based, does not take DNA samples from these bodies, even though it is required by law to do so,
” he said.
And this county is a real deadly corridor for migrants.
In Texas, each county has its own way.
It really is a disaster.
»
In el momento del CLAN previo (2021), habían reportado 7.647 secuestros y otros attacks a personas blocked or expelled in México bajo el #Título42during el gobierno de Biden.
Hoy la cifra is 13.480.
https://t.co/mAepNNqiJj
— WOLA (@WOLA_org) January 9, 2023
A locked system
In this region at the southern tip of Texas, more than 200 corpses of migrants have been found in the past two years.
Eduardo Canales accuses Governor Greg Abbott of having cut off funds for identification and redirecting them to operations to secure the border: "
It is ridiculous to force migrants to go through the river, through the desert, when they come here to work.
»
Refugees from Central and South America have virtually no possibility of applying for asylum in the United States, which has locked down its system.
Their desperation leads them into these dangerous crossings, according to Maureen Meyer.
"
This strategy to shield the border and all these police measures, this pushes migrants to take alternative routes, longer and riskier routes, and to let themselves be dragged away by traffickers, at the cost of their lives
", affirms- she.
Current migration policies have a human cost: 853 people died last year trying to cross the border.
► To read also:
Immigration: in Texas, associations denounce "a humanitarian disaster"
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