Discovering lacking migrants alongside the U.S.-Mexico border, the world’s deadliest land migration route

Ajo, Arizona — The search started with a prayer within the early morning hours, because the solar emerged from the mountains that adorn this picturesque, but typically lethal, panorama close to the U.S.-Mexico border.

It was the third search {that a} grassroots group of volunteers often called the Armadillos had launched into this summer time with the hopes of discovering José Salinas Pineda, a 21-year-old Mexican migrant who had been lacking since early June. 

Again of their houses in southern California, the volunteers are development staff, gardeners and cablemen. Just like the folks they search for, most are additionally immigrants. However within the desolate Arizona desert, the volunteers share a humanitarian mission: to supply some closure to distraught households by discovering the stays of their family members.

“For me, it isn’t honest that this particular person stays right here, on this place,” mentioned Roberto Resendiz because the Armadillos huddled round him for a bilingual pep discuss earlier than the search. Resendiz, 48, is without doubt one of the leaders of the group.

By this place, Resendiz meant the barren Sonoran Desert. Migrants cross it daily to achieve the U.S., regardless of the risks of traversing an inhospitable terrain in temperatures that attain the triple digits throughout the summer time.

Donning boots, shin guards, strolling sticks and overstuffed backpacks, the volunteers carried ample quantities of water, electrolytes, cereal bars, medical kits and do-it-yourself wood crosses to mark sightings of migrant stays. 

As they started to scour an enormous space contained in the Organ Pipe Cactus Nationwide Monument, the volunteers solely had three clues to search out Salinas Pineda. They had been informed his touring companions deserted the younger migrant when he turned severely fatigued close to a mountain often called “El Buda,” or the Buddha, a nod to its all-seeing, towering form. He was carrying black sneakers and camouflage gear.

A full-time development employee, Resendiz mentioned he has been looking for lacking migrants on the U.S. southern border for about 18 years. He and different volunteers typically fail to find the folks they’re in search of. Most of these they discover are already lifeless. Those that are nonetheless alive are dehydrated and wish medical consideration.

Given the three months that had elapsed since Salinas Pineda went lacking and their very own experiences within the unforgiving desert, the Armadillos had been well-aware that the probabilities of discovering him alive had been slim.

“It is a very long time,” Resendiz mentioned. “However we will not lose hope.”

“The deadliest land route for migrants”

Many of the migrants crossing into the U.S. as a part of the record-spike in border crossings over the previous a number of years have surrendered themselves to American immigration brokers to start an asylum course of that sometimes takes years to finish.

However some migrants attempt to enter the nation undetected, particularly Mexican males, who’re most prone to being rapidly deported if apprehended by U.S. brokers. These migrants typically journey by probably the most distant stretches of the border. The probabilities of slipping by with out getting caught are larger, however so are the dangers of perishing alongside the way in which.

The migration journey alongside the U.S.-Mexico border has lengthy proved to be lethal for a lot of. Between fiscal years 1998 and 2020, the U.S. Border Patrol recorded between 200 and 500 migrant deaths yearly. 

The loss of life toll has turn out to be much more grim in recent times. The variety of migrant deaths recorded by Border Patrol elevated to 568 in fiscal 12 months 2021 after which soared to just about 900 in fiscal 12 months 2022 — an all-time excessive. In fiscal years 2023 and 2024, Border Patrol recorded 704 and 560 migrant deaths respectively, in accordance with unpublished company knowledge obtained by CBS Information. 

The deaths prompted the United Nations to name the U.S.-Mexico border “the deadliest land route for migrants worldwide.”

Customs and Border Safety officers informed CBS Information the sharp improve in recorded migrant deaths in recent times primarily displays the general record-setting improve in encounters of migrants over that interval. However advocates say authorities coverage additionally performs a job. They argue that harsher border guidelines, just like the partial asylum ban enacted by President Biden in June, encourage migrants to attempt to enter the nation in distant areas to keep away from being detained and deported.

Justin De La Torre, the deputy chief Border Patrol agent within the Tucson sector, mentioned the advocates’ assertions are “merely unfaithful.” He famous that the federal government has arrange packages for migrants to enter the U.S. legally and safely, together with by a system that enables 1,500 folks to be processed at authorized entry factors every day. He mentioned CBP additionally makes use of helicopters, rescue beacons and different sources to find and help migrants stranded within the desert. 

“The choice to cross in probably the most distant areas alongside the southwest border is a choice that the felony organizations make, they usually alone make that call,” De La Torre mentioned, referring to smugglers who information migrants throughout the border for a steep value.

In Texas, migrants typically drown within the Rio Grande. In different areas, migrants fall to their loss of life after climbing the border wall. However the Arizona desert persistently sees the best variety of deaths throughout the border, federal and native statistics present.

In Pima County, which covers a big swath of the Arizona border, the medical expert has found practically 4,000 migrant stays because the flip of the century — or a mean of 165 annually. The stays vary from totally fleshed our bodies and people decomposing after a number of days within the desert, to the skeletons of migrants who’ve been lacking for months.

Based on the Pima County Medical Examiner, the commonest profile of somebody whose corpse is discovered within the desert suits Salinas Pineda’ description: a Mexican male between the ages of 20 and 29.

“Paying” for the American Dream

Lucero Salinas Pineda, 29, mentioned she was in disbelief when she heard her brother had gone lacking. If anybody would survive the trek north, she thought, it will be her brother, a younger and match man who had acquired navy coaching in Mexico.

Earlier than migrating, Salinas Pineda was tasked by the Mexican navy with busting illicit drug operations within the state of Sinaloa, often called one of many epicenters of a trafficking route by the nation’s cartels, in accordance with his sister. Due to the character of his work, Salinas Pineda grew more and more involved about his household’s security in Mexico, Lucero mentioned.

These issues prompted Salinas Pineda to go away Morelos, a state in central Mexico, the place he lived along with his sister and fogeys. In early June, he reached the Arizona-Mexico border, with plans to work in California for a number of years and ship a refund residence.

“My brother left on Saturday, June 1, after I acquired the final message from him, round 2:08 within the afternoon,” Lucero mentioned in Spanish.

Lucero mentioned she and her mother and father tried calling Salinas Pineda repeatedly, to no avail. Ultimately, she mentioned the household was informed her brother had been left behind within the desert by the individuals who smuggled him into the U.S. for an $8,000 charge.

A lawyer by commerce, Lucero started a frantic seek for her brother, contacting anybody who might need info on his whereabouts. She mentioned she managed to get ahold of Border Patrol officers, the Mexican consulate in Tucson and even the migrants touring along with her brother, who she mentioned had been arrested and deported to Mexico.

After hitting lifeless finish after lifeless finish, she researched different methods to search out him, finally finding volunteers who scour the border for lacking migrants. 

That is when Resendiz and the Armadillos determined to assist. The search by the Armadillos earlier this month within the Sonoran desert was the third and final search devoted solely to discovering Salinas Pineda.

After strolling for 9 hours by 12 miles of rugged terrain stuffed with cacti and monsoon creeks with a bunch of reporters, the Armadillos discovered an animal bone, water jugs and garments that had been presumably deserted by migrants who could have managed to get out of the desert. However there have been no indicators of Salinas Pineda.

Days after that unsuccessful search, Lucero mentioned she has even considered discovering a technique to get to the U.S. to stroll throughout the Arizona desert herself looking for her brother.

Lucero had been involved about her brother’s journey earlier than he journeyed north. 

“If one thing occurs to you,” she remembers telling him, “guess who might be in search of you? I would be the just one who will search for you.”

“I informed him, ‘Are you positive you need to go?'” Lucero recounted. “He had the instance of my father, who had migrated to perform the American dream within the U.S., which we at the moment are paying for.”

Nonetheless, Lucero says she’s hopeful her brother is someplace on the market, alive however unable to achieve her and their household. 

“I do know that my brother, wherever he’s, is aware of that I am in search of him,” Lucero mentioned.