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from https://apnews.com/article/immigration-border-deaths-new-mexico-677a6b57e729ca076a0d12dba31c3b70?utm_source=newsshowcase&utm_medium=gnews&utm_campaign=CDAqDwgAKgcICjCE7s4BMOH0KDDNnK0D&utm_content=rundown

Migrant deaths in New Mexico have increased tenfold
By ANITA SNOW, CHRISTOPHER L. KELLER and MORGAN LEE
Updated 2:53 AM PDT, October 15, 2024
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Ten times as many migrants died in New Mexico
near the U.S.-Mexico border in each of the last two years compared with
just five years ago as smuggling gangs steer them — exhausted,
dehydrated and malnourished — mostly into the hot desert, canyons or mountains west of El Paso, Texas.

During the first eight months of 2024, the bodies of 108 presumed
migrants mostly from Mexico and Central America were found near the
border in New Mexico and often less than 10 miles (6 kilometers) from El
Paso, according to the most recent data. The remains of 113 presumed
migrants were found in New Mexico in 2023, compared with nine in 2020
and 10 in 2019.

It’s not clear exactly why more migrants are being found dead in that
area, but many experts say smugglers are treating migrants more harshly
and bringing them on paths that could be more dangerous in extreme
summer temperatures.

The influx has taxed the University of New Mexico’s Office of the
Medical Investigator, which identifies the dead and conducts autopsies
that almost always show the cause as heat-related.

“Our reaction was sadness, horror and surprise because it had been very consistently low for as long as anyone can remember,” said Heather
Edgar, a forensic anthropologist with the office.

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“We’d always had three deputies down in that area, and I think we have
nine or 10 now,” Edgar said of New Mexico’s eastern migration corridor.

Immigration and border security are among voters’ top concerns heading
into the Nov. 5 presidential contest, but the candidates have focused on keeping migrants out of the U.S. and deporting those already here.

The increase in deaths is a humanitarian concern for advocates as
smugglers guide migrants into New Mexico through fencing gaps at the
border city of Sunland Park and over low-lying barriers west of the
nearby Santa Teresa Port of Entry.

“People are dying close to urban areas, in some cases just 1,000 feet
from roads,” noted Adam Isacson, an analyst for the nongovernmental Washington Office on Latin America. He said water stations, improved telecommunications and more rescue efforts could help.

New Mexico officials are targeting human-smuggling networks, recently
arresting 16 people and rescuing 91 trafficking victims. U.S. Customs
and Border Protection added a surveillance blimp to monitor the
migration corridor near its office in Santa Teresa, in New Mexico’s Doña
Ana County. Movable 33-foot (10-meter) towers use radar to scan the area.

U.S. officials in recent years have added 30 more push-button beacons
that summon emergency medical workers along remote stretches of the
border at New Mexico and western Texas. They have also set up more than
500 placards with location coordinates and instructions to call 911 for
help.

This summer, the Border Patrol expanded search and rescue efforts,
dispatching more patrols with medical specialists and surveillance
equipment. The agency moved some beacons closer to the border, where
more migrants have been found dead or in distress.

Border Patrol says it rescued nearly 1,000 migrants near the U.S. border
in New Mexico and western Texas over the past 12 months — up from about
600 the previous 12 months.

Dylan Corbett, executive director of the faith-based Hope Border
Institute in El Paso, said 10-member church teams recently started
dropping water bottles for migrants in the deadly New Mexico corridor
alongside fluttering blue flags.

“Part of the problem is that organized crime has become very systematic
in the area,” Corbett said of the increased deaths. He also blamed
heightened border enforcement in Texas and new U.S. asylum restrictions
that President Joe Biden introduced in June and tightened last month.

New Mexico’s rising deaths come as human-caused climate change increases
the likelihood of heat waves. This year, the El Paso area had its
hottest June ever, with an average temperature of 89.4 degrees
Fahrenheit (31.8 Celsius). June 12 and 13 saw daily record highs of 109
F (42.7 C).

Those high temperatures can be deadly for people who have been on
strenuous journeys. Some smugglers lead migrants on longer routes into
gullies or by the towering Mount Cristo Rey statue of Jesus Christ that
casts a shadow over neighboring Mexico.

Deputy Chief Border Patrol Agent Juan Bernal of the El Paso Sector said migrants are weak when they arrive at the border after weeks or months
without adequate food and water in houses smugglers keep in Mexico.

“They’re expected to walk, sometimes for hours or days, to get to their destination where they’re going to be picked up,” he said.

The deaths have continued even as migration has fallen along the entire
border following Biden’s major asylum restrictions.

New Mexico’s migrant death numbers now rival those in Arizona’s even
hotter Sonoran desert, where the remains of 114 presumed border crossers
were discovered during the first eight months of 2024, according to a
mapping project by the nonprofit Humane Borders and the Pima County
Medical Examiner’s Office in Tucson.

Nearly half of those who died in New Mexico this year were women. Women
ages 20 to 29 made up the largest segment of these deaths.

“We are awaiting for you at home,” a family in the southern Mexican
state of Chiapas implored in early June in a missing person post for a 25-year-old female relative who was found dead days later. “Please come back.”

After a 24-year-old Guatemalan woman’s remains were discovered that same month, a mortuary in her hometown posted a death notice with a photo of
her smiling in a blue dress and holding a floral bouquet.

“It should not be a death sentence to come to the United States,” Doña
Ana County Sheriff’s Maj. Jon Day told a recent community gathering.
“And when we push them into the desert areas here, they’re coming across and they’re dying.”

___
Snow reported from Phoenix. Lee reported from Santa Fe, New Mexico.

CHRISTOPHER L. KELLER
Keller works with reporters and editors to find stories in data and
documents and contributes context to spot and breaking news stories for
The Associated Press.
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