{"id":3747,"date":"2020-10-28T10:57:48","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T15:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=3747"},"modified":"2020-10-28T10:57:48","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T15:57:48","slug":"cronkite-news-deaths-of-migrants-rose-amid-covid-19-and-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2020\/10\/28\/cronkite-news-deaths-of-migrants-rose-amid-covid-19-and-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Cronkite News: Deaths of migrants rose amid COVID-19 and climate change"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This is "Humane Borders" by Tagline Group on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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Human Borders: Fronteras Compasivas<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n
Report: Migrant deaths in the desert have reached seven-year high<\/div>\r\n
By Chase Hunter<\/div>\r\n
Cronkite News<\/DIV>\r\n
cronkitenews.azpbs.org<\/A><\/DIV>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nWASHINGTON — Remains of 181 migrants were found in the Arizona desert through the end of September, 37 more than in all of last year and the most since 2013, according to the group Humane Borders<\/a>.

<\/P>\r\nThe rise in migrant deaths comes during a year of intense heat and little precipitation for Arizona – but also at a time when the number of people caught crossing the border has fallen sharply.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nHumanitarian groups and county officials along the border blame the rising deaths on years of border security policies that have pushed migrants toward riskier routes into the U.S. – along with this year’s harsh weather, expanded border security and COVID-19 health restrictions<\/a>.

<\/P>\r\n“It’s kind of like stopping water: If you block it up in one place, it’s going to go somewhere else,” said Pima County Sheriff Mark Napier. “We’re seeing the results of that as an increase in deaths.”

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A makeshift memorial in 2011 at the site where a migrant teen\u2019s body was found in Arizona. Remains found in the desert through the first three quarters of this year have already exceeded all of 2019, and are at the highest rate since 2013, a new report says. Photo by Bob Gaffney<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe \r\nnumber of deaths<\/a>\r\nis tracked by the humanitarian group Humane Borders, using data from the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office and other public sources. The group, which releases numbers quarterly, recovered remains of 181 people in the desert through September, with 85 of those cases coming in the last three months alone.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nThis year’s deaths are just five shy of the 186 recorded in 2013, according to Humane Borders. Since then, annual deaths have ranged from 124 in 2017 to 166 in 2016.

<\/P>\r\n\r\nPhoenix had it \r\nhottest summer<\/a>\r\non record in 2020, which was also one of the state’s driest years, according to the National Weather Service. It said the just-ended monsoon season was the sixth-driest since 1895, with 0.10″ of rain measured. Almost 94% of Arizona is currently in severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nNapier said the heat alone is not what kills migrants – the lack of water is the main issue.

<\/P>\r\n“The difference between it being 103 degrees in the desert and you having no water or 105 degrees in the desert with no water, it’s had a minimal effect,\u201d Napier said. “If you’re walking 20 miles in the desert and you have no water, it’s life-threatening.”

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<\/P>\r\nSophie Smith, a co-founder of the Arivaca-based humanitarian organization People Helping People, said what water is available to migrants is unsafe.

<\/P>\r\n“There are few to no water sources out here,” Smith said. “The water sources that do exist are usually cattle ponds for ranchers out here and are contaminated, so it’s really common for people to drink water that’s dirty to survive.”

<\/P>\r\nSmith believes migrants keep coming because they have little choice, “fleeing not only economic violence and poverty that create circumstances that are very deadly, but literal threats to life” back home.

<\/P>\r\nBeginning in 1994, she said, immigration enforcement resources were steered toward ports of entry and safer areas to cross the border, pushing migrants to cross in increasingly dangerous areas. She said that’s no accident.

<\/P>\r\n“It’s written into the policy,” Smith said. “The language of the policy explains that border patrol aims to put people into hostile terrain where they may find themselves in mortal danger as a way to diminish crossing levels as a deterrent.”

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