A local charitable organization in El Paso, Texas, reports that the federal government continues to use tactics like smuggler chases and other forms of smuggler-related smuggling to reduce migrant deaths.
Research published in March by the Arizona- based No More Deaths shows two to four times as some workers died in West Texas and Southern New Mexico in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020 than reported by the government. Dehydration or cold, depending on the season, falls from mountains or border walls, drownings, being struck by motor vehicles, or being hurt during law-enforcement chases, were the causes of the deaths.
The party attributes the undercount, which it case-by-case records in a public repository with more than 400 incidents, to inappropriate follow-up with facilities, regional officers, and medical examiners when border officials or officials arrive at injured parties or skeletal remains.
” I’ve seen in the information they only take 4 % of deaths that occur in a hospital”, said Bryce Peterson, an independent researcher for No More Deaths. Even though Border Patrol was aware of the death,” I’ve seen reports of deaths that were not reported by the ( U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s ) Office of Professional Responsibility.”
Research from No More Deaths has 438 workers dying in the El Paso Sector from 2012- 2023, compared to 312 reported by the federal government.
The organization claims that its information comes from the New Mexico Office of the Medical Examiner Investigator, the physician attorney’s headquarters in El Paso and Hudspeth Counties, and CBP. The organization claims that the gap will encourage greater accountability and transparency within state.
In a speech to Border Report, CBP said it follows Parliamentary investigating needs. And while the disparity is substantial between 2016 and 2022, CBP documented more migrant deaths in 2022 than No More Deaths did ( 149 vs. 139 ).
” While CBP works had to record this knowledge as completely and accurately as possible, these files are not all- embracing. According to CBP, these figures may vary from those of other companies that monitor related data.
The company tracks two sets of immigrant deaths: in- guardianship and on- the- industry encounters. Through the Missing Migrant Program, the latter has been compiled in cooperation with regional governments since 2017. It operates in 45 regions along the Southwest borders, monitors fatalities reported by those suspected of entering the country illegally, and determines whether the Border Patrol intervened.
The firm admits it is a work in progress.
The lost immigrant program of the U.S. Border Patrol is expanding its partnerships with key stakeholders to strengthen the reporting of incidents, according to CBP.
In a 2022 statement, the Government Accountability Office said national migrant death data is inadequate. ” In April ( 2022 ), GAO found that Border Patrol has not collected and recorded, or reported to Congress, complete data on migrant deaths. In particular, all migrant deaths in cases where an external object second discovers the remnants of a dying migrant”, the statement says.
Fernando Garcia, executive producer of the Border Network for Human Rights, said the undercount is no wonder.
It “underlines what we have known for a number of years and the fact that, yes, there is an undercount of workers dying on the frontier. Every time the official figures reveal something that is n’t necessarily true, Garcia said.
He claimed that neither the national government nor officials may minimize the danger at the borders and that Americans have a right to know.
Many of the deaths have been attributed to staunch immigration enforcement laws, which force people to cross the border through plains, mountains, bodies of water, or make a run for it through active routes north of the wall or the Rio Grande.
Because of official U.S. border plan, thousands, if not thousands, of people are dying. This is suicide by policy”, he said.
Government interests criticized, Mexicans, Ghanaians make up most casualties
No More Deaths says immigration firm chases, on legs and by automobile, account for at least 35 migrant deaths in the region. That’s not counting U. S. citizens who’ve died while allegedly transporting migrants for profit.
Four El Paso teens and three Guatemalan immigrants who were escaping the Border Patrol perished in June 2020 when their car hit a curve at high speed. Accidents involving pursuits, not only by border agents but also by DPS, have only multiplied since.
According to Peterson,” Ending these pursuit practices would significantly reduce deaths, as would removing the border wall.” ” If 911 calls went to local search and rescue organizations, the rescue response would likely be much stronger”.
Border agents and Texas Department of Public Safety officials have previously told Border Report that letting smugglers drive off endangers the migrants. Numerous cases of kidnapping, extortion, sexual abuse and exploitation have been documented in court dockets in border states and beyond.
” Transnational criminal organizations continue to recklessly endanger the lives of people they smuggle for financial gain.” Smugglers frequently abandon migrants in remote, risky locations where severe heat, exposure, and miles of desert “pose countless threats,” according to CBP.
According to No More Deaths ‘ database, half of the deaths in El Paso city limits were caused by drowning, while the desert between Sunland Park, Hidalgo, and Luna counties in New Mexico have claimed more than 100 lives. The majority of the deceased migrants who have been identified are either Mexican or Guatemalan.
” This is the population that is mostly affected. When Mexicans apply for asylum, they are immediately rejected. Mexicans “go between the ports of entry,” according to Garcia of the Border Network for Human Rights, “because it is well known that they do not have the same right to asylum.”
In earlier interviews, immigration attorneys in El Paso, such as Carlos Spector, have confirmed that Mexican nationals face more difficult legal procedures than other nationals.
Other fatalities include Salvadorans, Colombians, Brazilians and Ecuadorans.
Transnational criminal organizations in alliance with gangs in other parts of the hemisphere, according to international security experts and former Border Patrol agents, bring large numbers of people from all over the world to the border. They occasionally instruct them to surrender at the border wall, and occasionally they arrange for their pickup on the U.S. side. They also arrange for their assistance. However, some migrants are lost in the desert or abandoned by smugglers who have already received compensation.
No one is paying attention to it, Garcia said,” It is a major crisis, it is a catastrophe that needs to be resolved.”
