No shade, no water, and record heat: More migrants die in US desert
SUNLAND PARK, New Mexico — Veteran firefighter Daniel Medrano got out of his truck somewhere in the barren outskirts of Sunland Park, New Mexico, where a vast expanse of yellow sand is dotted by stubby bushes. Under one, he found a body. Medrano wrapped a black scarf around his nose and mouth as he looked closer: Black sneakers, green hat, dark hair in a braid. Empty water bottle at arm’s length. The Aug. 17 afternoon was around 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38°C), and Medrano believed the woman had died days before – another migrant killed by scorching heat while entering the United States. “You can see the body is right up against the mesquite bush, probably trying to get some shade,” said Medrano, fire chief for Sunland Park, a city on the Mexico border next to El Paso. He gestured with both arms to the seemingly endless desert, admitting even he didn’t know his exact location. “We’re maybe about three to five miles away from the city, and this is what happens.” In the last 12 months through September, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) logged 60 migrant deaths due to heat in the El Paso Sector, triple the same period a year ago. READ: Hundreds of migrants try to force their way into US at Mexico border The sector spans the Chihuahuan Desert through New Mexico and parts of Texas along 268 miles (431 km) of the border. It has been the busiest area for migrant crossings into the U.S. southwest at a time when overall border apprehensions are on track to match or surpass record levels.Migrant advocates and academics have said for years that policies like increased fencing and checkpoints, intended to deter those aiming to cross illegally into the U.S., push migrants to take increasingly perilous routes to evade detection. That includes ever-longer treks through remote stretches of desert where they are prone to exhaustion and dehydration. Migrants can also be abandoned by human traffickers without water, or jammed into sweltering truck trailers. The 2022 death toll at the U.S.-Mexico border prompted the U.N. migration agency to deem the area the world’s deadliest land migration route. As weather extremes are expected to worsen due to climate change, these journeys will likely only become riskier. “Now it’s going to be even worse because of the weather … it’s an additional traumatic factor,” said Fernando Garcia, head of the Border
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