New Mexico’s dangerous southern border has become the deadliest in the United States for migrants, a border where 40 percent of the total deaths of those trying to cross into the country illegally from Mexico have been reported this year.
According to the report ‘Deaths at the Border’, released by the humanitarian group No More Deaths, the El Paso sector of the US Border Patrol, which covers the border of the state of New Mexico and part of Texas with Mexico, became for the first time the deadliest for migrants.
The El Paso County Medical Examiner’s Office reported that 196 deaths have been recorded in this region this year, a 20 percent increase compared to the 148 deaths reported in 2023 and 40 percent more compared to the 71 deaths recorded in 2022.
The analysis by No More Deaths, based on information also provided by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), highlights that there is a systematic failure when recording the cause of death of the migrant.
“This investment could be the beginning of a great transformation in their life.”
Particularly when the cause of death is due to falling from the border wall.
Thus, the humanitarian group assures that less than 25 percent of deaths due to falls from the border wall were recorded as such by CBP, and often even the medical examiner’s report contradicts the cause of death indicated by CBP.
The report indicates that this type of failure is not the only one, since they have also found cases where the Border Patrol was directly involved with the death of the migrant, but this is not included in the CBP report.
Previously, the deadliest sectors for migrants were the Rio Grande sector in Texas, due to the number of migrants who died trying to cross the Rio Grande.
As well as the Tucson sector, which covers the Arizona border and where migrants face intense desert temperatures that easily exceed 43 degrees Celsius during the summer.
No ‘American dream’: Migrants die trying to cross the border between Mexico and the US
To date, groups that defend migrants estimate that during 2024 more than 500 migrants have died along the border with Mexico.
The No More Deaths report warns that since 2021 approximately 500 women have died trying to cross the border from the United States with Mexico.
While female deaths accounted for 25 percent of those reported so far this year along the border, a significant increase from 2018, when they accounted for only 10 percent of deaths.
This new report is part of a broader No More Deaths project that seeks to document the causes and deaths of migrants at the border.
Source: elfinanciero
