Border officials and representatives from Mexico and Central America are making a direct plea to people considering the often deadly journey of crossing the U.S.-Mexico border undocumented.
“Our ultimate hope is that migrants seek the assistance of the U.S. Border Patrol and other first responder components through the 911 system. Or, they seek safety and assistance along their route as soon as they realize the extremely treacherous journey is not for them, that they do so before they find themselves in a life-or-death situation and before it’s too late,†said Rafael Reyes, acting deputy chief patrol agent for the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Sector.
The most repeated message: Make sure phones are fully charged and call 911 if they are in distress.
As part of the Missing Migrant Program Summit, representatives from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the consulates of Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador, the Mexican state of Sonora and nongovernmental partners shared a message, speaking in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ at a Nov. 18 news conference, for people who might migrate to the U.S.-Mexico border.
People are also reading…
Fiscal year 2022, which ended in September, was a deadly year for migrants trying to cross the border undocumented. More than 800 migrants are known to have died along the U.S.-Mexico border, a large portion of whom drowned in Texas’ El Rio Bravo, according to .
That’s up from 600 known deaths in fiscal year 2021, which set a record then, according to a on the Missing Migrant Program.
George Serrano, national coordinator for the Missing Migrant Program, talks about the program and the dangers migrants face when crossing the border.
The Border Patrol worked to rescue more than 22,000 migrants in 2022, Reyes said. There were about 13,000 migrant rescues in 2021.
The ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ desert, in particular, is one of the most dangerous places to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, increasingly so as enforcement strategies push migrants who choose to cross into more remote parts of the border.
Nonetheless, the number of migrant remains found in fiscal year 2022 at the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ border dropped slightly from the previous two years, according to data from , a project done in partnership with the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office.
In 2022, there were 183 migrants whose bodies or remains were recovered in known migrant corridors. In 2021, that number was 237 — a record; and in 2020, it was 211. The No. 1 cause of death is exposure to the elements.
The Border Patrol’s Missing Migrant Program, created in 2017, is intended to identify and help missing or injured migrants, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
The program works with consulates of various countries and other governmental and nongovernmental organizations to find people who have gone missing crossing the border and those who are in distress and need help.
The Border Patrol still needs to improve the program, according to government oversight.
In April, the Government Accountability Office found the Border Patrol had not collected or reported to Congress complete data on migrant deaths, in particular those instances where an external entity first discovered the remains.
A on Nov. 15 found that the Border Patrol has made some improvements, including officials visiting six of the nine border sectors to review their activities and discuss how data on migrant deaths is collected and entered into the tracking system.
The agency needs to continue improving how they collect and record available information on migrant deaths, the report said.
George Serrano, the Border Patrol’s national coordinator for the program, has visited multiple sectors and says they’re working on streamlining the information they get from outside organizations, such as missing persons reports from consulates, and also avoiding having multiple missing persons reports on the same person.
“We don’t want to get three reports for one person, and it’s going to multiple sectors and then we’re duplicating our efforts, and we’re multiplying the number of people we’re looking for,†Serrano said.
The Border Patrol is working “to deconflict that information to accurately report who we’re trying to look for, who we’re rescuing, so we can provide accuracy in the numbers and the data,†he said.
Photos: 2006 ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ border project
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN YSIDRO, Calif, 2006: A man climbs back into Mexico after being spotted by Border Patrol agents in Tijuana. He had climbed one fence and was preparing to scale the second, when the presense of agents convinced him to turn around. The San Diego Sector remains a busy area of entry for border crossers, rebounding to second-busiest after a drop in apprehensions following Operation Gatekeeper in the mid-�90s before Operation Gatekeeper slowed illegal crossings to a trickle. barriers
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
JACUMBA, Calif, 2006: Mikayla McCanna, 14, hangs out near her mother�s American Indian crafts and jewelry shop on the main street of Jacumba, Calif., a border town that once had an unofficial port of entry. After Sept. 11, the U.S. government closed these casual crossing points.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN LUIS, Ariz., 2006: The huge steel posts are set several feet into the ground and are meant to withstand the blow of any vehicle trying to drive across the international line.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
CHIHUAHUA, Mex, 2006: Carlos Jimenez says he has no wish to immigrate to the U.S., preferring instead to work at a border stockyard in Chihuahua, two hours from his home.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
EL PASO, Texas, 2006: With cars and pedestrians streaming into the U.S. behind him, Jorge Ramirez Gonzalez leads a group of migrants caught in New Mexico back to Mexico under the watch of Mexican officials.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico, 2006: Graffiti - some as confrontational as "USA = death and destruction" - run along the Rio Grande in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Critics say a border fence would be a slap to the face of a major trading partner.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN YSIDRO, Calif, 2006: A Mexico man who collects recyclable material for money crossing in and out through the mettle fence that separates Mexico from the United States at the very edge of Border Field State Park at the beach in San Ysidro, California.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SASABE, Mex., 2006: A stray dog noses for scraps at a staging camp for illegal border crossers south of Sasabe, Sonora. About a dozen migrants had been waiting half the day to be picked up and smuggled into the U.S. for about $1,500 each. They didn�t know exactly where they were going, or when.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
CALEXICO, Calif., 2006: U.S. Border Patrol Agent Enrique Lozano walks among vehicles he said broke down while smuggling drugs or people across the border near Calexico, Calif. In ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, Organ Pipe National Monument rangers have found 200 vehicles in the past five years.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
IMPERIAL, Calif, 2006: With the Imperial Sand Dunes as her backdrop, New Yorker Cindi Blair, 39, walks back to her vehicle in southeastern California. The dunes, nearly 40 miles long and 10 miles wide, act as a natural barrier. So do the sand temperatures, which can hit 150 degrees in the summer. No border markers sit on the dunes, though some vehicle barriers keep smugglers from driving over the shifting sand directly onto Interstate 8.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
NACO, Ariz., 2006: A weathered fence along the border stands west of the border towns of Naco, Ariz., and Naco, Sonora.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
TIJUANA, Mex., 2006: A steel fence divides Tijuana, Mexico, from the suburbs of San Diego.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
LAREDO, Texas, 2006: Laredo Police Officer Albert Ochoa conducts a traffic stop while patrolling a park neighbors complain is so overrun with crime and gangs they don't feel safe there at night. After a couple of weeks of intensive patrols, residents said they felt they had their park back.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SASABE, Ariz., 2006: These vehicle barriers in Organ Pipe National Monument south of Ajo are considered more environmentally friendly than fences because wildlife can pass through.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Mex., 2006: Jairo Zarate, 12, looks through the windows of his family's car in San Luis Rio Colorado. He lives in a neighborhood where his family says violence is common.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SELLS, Ariz., 2006: Border crossers are caught and detained after illegally crossing the U.S./Mexico border near Sells, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
TIJUANA, Mex., 2006: In Tijuana, where trash is tossed from Mexico into the United States, tough border enforcement has only pushed illegal entrants away from the San Diego area.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION, Ariz., 2006: Margaret Garcia (MARGARET GARCIA) talks about her life in the villiage of right on the U.S./Mexico border in the Tohono O'Odham Nation.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN YSIDRO, Calif, 2006: Groups of illegal entrants used to run across freeways in San Ysidro. Stricter enforcement changed that.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
CALEXICO, Calif, 2006: Just an obelisk: In some places, such as just outside Calexico, Calif., the border is marked with just a stone, not a fence.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
AGUA PRIETA, Mex., 2006: TTommy Bassett talks with Mario, left, a heroin and cocaine addict who along with two others is going through withdrawl in the detox room at the CRREDA drug rehabilitation center in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN YSIDRO, Calif., 2006: The end of the United States fence located at the Pacific Ocean at the Border Field State Park at the beach in San Ysidro, California. Gaps in the metal fence in the State Park make it easy for people to walk or swim through.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
LAREDO, Texas, 2006: People stand in line waiting to cross into the United States at the port of entry in Laredo, Texas. Laredo is one of the busiest ports of entry along the border, receiving an estimated 3,000 people per day through its gates.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
CAMPO, Calilf, 2006: U.S. Border Patrol Agent Ferreira wraps the tip of Maria de Rosario�s finger that was cut off while crossing over U.S./Mexico border fence west of Campo near the city of Boulevard, California.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
LAREDO, Texas, 2006: A giant Mexican flag flies over the port of entry in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, while graffiti adorns a neighborhood across the river in Laredo, Texas. A Laredo Police officer said that the neighborhood was once so ripe with crime that a police car could not enter its streets without being vandalized.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
BOQUILLAS, Mex, 2006: Unable to cross the river to sell their goods, residents of Boquillas, Mexico, near Big Bend National Park, leave souvenirs on the banks of the Rio Grande with a note asking for donations.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
AGUA PRIETA, Mex., 2006: Tommy Bassett, left, gets a welcome hug from friend Raul Garcia, director at the CRREDA drug rehabilitation center in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico. Bassett says he sleeps in the U.S. but lives in Mexico where he has numerous friends, many of whom are unable to cross the border and visit him.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
CALEXICO, Calif.,2006: Three people who were identified by U.S. Border Patrol Agents as illegal aliens wade through the current of the New River in Calexico, Calif. towards Mexicali, Baja California after being confronted by a Border Patrol Agent while on foot, and entering to water to avoid capture. The New River is considered to be the most polluted river in the United States, containing high levels of industrial waste and raw sewage and high risk of infection to human beings who come in even brief contact with its waters. Border Patrol Agents attempted to convince the crossers to get out of the water and walk on dry land the roughly 50 yards back to Mexico, but their warnings were not heeded.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Mex., 2006: Jose Juarez, left, washes clothes while Jorge Corona and Jose Villanueva bathe in an irrigation canal in San Luis Rio Colorado, across the border from Yuma. Juarez and Corona were deported and can't afford to get home. Villanueva is stranded after leaving Los Angeles to return to family in Nuevo Leon and being robbed on the border.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
LOCHIEL, Ariz., 2006: The border and former gate for the port of entry at Lochiel, AZ.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK, 2006: Canyons, cliffs make border fence impossible: "We've got a huge ally in our geography here. I don't see how you could physically construct something here," said ranger Mark Spier of Big Bend National Park, part of which is across from the Mexican village of Boquillas.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
BOCA CHICA BEACH, Texas, 2006: Kimberly Hernandez, 15, wades in the surf of Boca Chica Beach at the mouth of the Rio Grande River and the Gulf of Mexico. A fisherman casts his net from the Mexican shoreline behind her.The invisible international boundary line is considered to be in the exact center of the Rio Grande, roughly in between the two.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN YSIDRO, Calif, 2006: United States Border Patrol jeep drives down the empty beach at very edge of Border Field State Park at the beach in San Ysidro, California. Gaps in the metal fence in the State Park make it easy for people to walk through.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SELLS, Ariz., 2006: Juan Carlos, right, waits under a tree with 14 other border crossers caught crossing the U.S./Mexico border near Sells, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK, 2006: An agave plant stands alone as rain falls over Texas' Big Bend National Park. "If you put in a wall, yes, you are going to affect the ecology. ... But you are also protecting a lot of habitat behind it and increasing security at the same time," says Roger Di Rosa, manager of the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SASABE, Mex., 2006: Twenty-three-year-old Paula Alvarez Miranda's shoes wore out during the five days and four nights she spent walking through the desert before surrendering to Border Patrol agents.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
TIJUANA, Mex., 2006: House line the Mexico side (left) of the US/ Mexico border in a small town called El Nido Da Las Aguilas located at the end of Tijuana�s 14 mile border fence in the outskirts of Tijuana in the Otay mountains.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
LAS CHEPAS, Mex, 2006: Catching a ride: Tired would-be illegal entrants head east toward Puerto Palomas, Chihuahua. Despite increases in the resources available to fight illegal immigration, people continue to try to cross in the same numbers as a decade ago. "They will find a way, if they need jobs, to get here," U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz. said.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Mex, 2006: Luz Zarate, 3, rubs her eyes in exhaustion while on her father's lap. Jorge Zarate supports the family on his factory worker salary, which is about $60 per week.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
EL PASO, Texas, 2006: A man immigration officials identified as a coyote called "El Diablo" is escorted from El Paso back to Mexico. Agents here escort apprehended illegal entrants across the Paso del Norte international bridge.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
HOLTVILLE, Calif, 2006: Crosses mark the graves of unknown illegal entrants in this cemetery near Holtville, Calif. "The problem is that a lot of them don't realize how bad it is. When they go across the desert they are asking for nothing but trouble," says Joe Marini, a neighbor who helps maintain the graves.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
LAREDO, Texas, 2006: Laredo, Texas, police question a man they detained for drinking in public and failing to cooperate with police. The Police Department's strategy is to assert itself as a formidable force powerful enough to resist the drug cartel violence raging across the border in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. Officers lectured the suspect and released him. His nationality was not known.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SASABE, Mex, 2006: These adobe bricks, handmade in Mexico, will be exported to Phoenix. While tighter enforcement means goods take longer to get across the border, that's not the case in tiny Sasabe, Sonora.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
CAMPO, Calif., 2006: Chechstan Hebek, a Minuteman, patrols the U.S./Mexico border west of San Diego by himself, reporting things he sees to the proper agency.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
DOUGLAS, Ariz, 2006: Jose Aristiga plays on a trampoline well withing sight of the border fence and the regular station for Border Patrol agents in a neighborhood along the fence in Douglas.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
LUKEVILLE, Ariz., 2006: The border fence just east of the Lukeville also called Gringo Pass, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥. Photo taken from the US side of the fence.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN YSIDRO, Calif, 2006: People jog on the Mexican side (left) of the United States border fence that ends at the Pacific Ocean at Border Field State Park in San Ysidro, California.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
JACUMBA, Calif, 2006: A flag tapped to the U.S./Mexico border in Jacumba, California, according to US Border Patrol agents were left my Minutemen who passed through the town.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
TIJUANA, Mex., 2006: Gela Garcia Mejia runs a little general store on the top of the city of El Nido Da Las Aguilas located at the end of Tijuana�s 14 mile border fence in the outskirts of Tijuana at the Otay mountains.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
EL PASO, Texas, 2006: A young man peers over the U.S. bank of the Rio Grande River, EL Paso, TX., Saturday, July 29, 2006, as he scouts for the Border Patrol agents who chased him and his group from the rail yard 20 yards from the bank's edge. The group faded into the brush with BP agents keeping an eye on them.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
LAS CHEPAS, Mex, 2006: A tired migrant sits on the side of the only road between Palomas and Las Chepas, Chihuahua, Mexico, July 30, 2006, as he waits with a group to make their way back to Palomas. The group had tried to sneak into the U.S. the night before but had several run-ins with a National Guard unit.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN YSIDRO, Calif., 2006: As a flood of vehicles waits in line in Tijuana, Mexico, U.S. Customs agents inspect a car and question its passengers at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, where 18 million vehicles a year are checked.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION, Ariz., 2006: Behr Cabanes photographs Border Patrol trucks driving by the home of his grandmother, Ofelia Rivas, on the Tohono O'odham Nation southwest of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥. The tribe, one of three American Indian nations on the international line, shares 75 miles of border with Mexico.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
LAS CHEPAS, Mex, 2006: Passing a crumbling adobe house, two girls walk along a street in the Mexican border town of Las Chepas, where officials razed 31 abandoned buildings last year in an attempt to stem the tide of people who use the town as a hide-out before crossing into the United States.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SUNLAND PARK, N.M., 2006: The statue of Jesus on the cross atop Mount Cristo Rey will not be keeping company with National Guard troops after the mountain's part-owners declined the Border Patrol's offer of help.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Mex, 2006: Aldo Zarate, 9, and his cousin Brayan Perez, 11, use a makeshift net to fish for minnows in an opening of the fence in front of the Zarate house on the Sonora, Mexico, side of the border. The boys are accustomed to the constant company of the U.S. Border Patrol as they fish, swim or play in a fort they built behind the house.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
CALEXICO, Calif., 2006: The shopping on East 2nd Street in Calexico, California, draws crowd of people, the shops are located blocks awayfrom the port of entry from Mexicali, Mexico.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SASABE, Mexico, 2006: Javier Godines, 30, far left, fills his backpack with water, bottled juice and cans of food to sustain him on his trip north. He and other would-be illegal entrants wait at a camp south of Sasabe, Sonora. They each agreed to pay about $1,500 to be smuggled into the United States. Godines later calls this his toughest crossing. "It's very difficult because there is more immigration and more patrol," he says after arriving in California.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
COLUMBUS, N.M., 2006: American resident Javier Lozano kisses daughter Laura, a Mexican citizen, on the U.S. side of the entry port at Puerto Palomas, Mexico. Laura, 11, waited for her father, a judge in nearby Columbus, N.M., to visit on his lunch break and in her excitement ran across the international line to hug him � technically an illegal entry, but one agents here tolerated.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN DIEGO COUNTY, 2006: Border Patrol patrols the double fence that runs through 14 miles of San Diego County and Tijuana, Mexico. Photo taken in San Yisdro near the port of entry.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
LAS CHEPAS, Mex, 2006: Shoes and socks in hand a migrant picks his way through the mud of a washed out section of the road as he makes the journey from Palomas to Las Chepas, Chihuahua, Mexico. Las Chepas is a staging area for migrants before their run into the U.S.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
COLUMBUS, N.M., 2006: New Mexico onion farmer James Johnson, who says illegal entrants steal his water, is tired of outsiders imposing policies that don't work. "You've got to be on the border to understand the border," he says.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
CAMPO, Calif, 2006: U.S. Border Patrol Agent Ferreira looks through a hole in the U.S. border fence, west of a small border town called Campo near the city of Boulevard, California, to see if there are any people hiding or preparing to throw rocks over the fence to hurt other officers.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
CAMPO, Calif, 2006: U.S. Border Patrol Agent Ferreira takes Victor Perez, 24, into custody after crossing over the US/ Mexico fence west of a small border town of Campo near the city of Boulevard, California.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
LAS CHEPAS, Mex, 2006: A sign welcomes visitors and asks for donations to keep the only road into town repaired on the eastern outskirts of the villiage of Las Chepas, Chihuahua, Mexico. The villiage and its supply of empty houses and structures right on the U.S./Mexico border is a prime jumping off point for migrants.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN DIEGO, 2006: A yellow line in the Tijuana River basin marks the international border. The river runs north through the border and empties near Imperial Beach in San Diego.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN YSIDRO, Calif, 2006: From canyons to flatlands: Despite stadium lighting, rough terrain makes Smuggler's Gulch tough to patrol. The government plans to fill the 230-foot-deep canyon with dirt procured by leveling nearly mesas. Such forbidding terrain complicates plans for a border fence.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Mex, 2006: Jairo Zarate sits on one of his favorite spots on the bridge in front of his house on the Mexico side of the border in San Luis del Rio Colorado, Sonora Mexico. Jairo often fishes from the same spot, when he has fishing line. hoping to hook a small catfish or large carp.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SASABE, Mex., 2006: Illegal entrants have left behind hundreds of thousands of pounds of trash, some at this camp near Sasabe, Sonora.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
JACUMBA, Calif, 2006: For five generations, Monica Rubio's family has lived in Jacumba, Calif. Rubio, with daughter Christina, left, and niece Marivel Gallego, used to be able to walk across the border and visit relatives in Jacum�, Mexico. She no longer can do so.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN ELIZARIO, Texas, 2006: Manny Monreal, one of a handful of area youth wiling away the evening, jumps his skateboard in the placida fronting the San Elizario Chapel, in San Elizario, TX., less than a mile from the U.S./Mexico border.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
COLUMBUS, N.M. 2006: Near the border town of Columbus, N.M., Reymundo Chavira waits for the truck he will load cattle into. The company he works for imports cattle from Mexico, which requires its own inspection and security screening measures to meet importation standards.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
TIJUANA, Mex., 2006: Garcia Veracruz of Veracruz, Mexico, stays in Casa de Migrante in Tijuana, Mexico. Migrants who have crossed or are attempting to cross the border receive amenities, food, and a bed at the shelter.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
RIO GRANDE RIVER, Texas, 2006: A self-proclaimed convicted drug dealer who goes by "Cristobal" leaps into the Rio Grande after crossing illegally into Texas for fun. The Border Patrol was nowhere in sight, although agents say they control the area from farther inland. Cristobal says that even after being deported, he still smuggles drugs by boat farther up the river, where denser vegetation makes it easier to avoid detection.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN DIEGO COUNTY, 2006: Border Patrol patrols the double fence that runs through 14 miles of San Diego County and Tijuana, Mexico. Photo taken in San Yisdro near the port of entry.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN YSIDRO, Calif, 2006: Smuggler's Gulch on the San Ysidro, Tijuana border is a particularly difficult area to secure. Even with stadium lighting a Border Patrol access roads, rough terrain has made fence construction and accessibility a problem. There are plans to level the area by filling in the 130 foot deep gulch, which has raised environmental and logistical concerns.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SASABE, Ariz., 2006: As his wife, Dolores, waits, Francisco Alvarez fills a gas can at a general store in Sasabe, Ariz. The Alvarezes legally crossto ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, buy gas, and then resell it for a profit in Sasabe, Sonora, where there is no gas station.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
COLUMBUS, N.M., 2006: A truck heads west on the Mexican side as it passes a section of broken barbed wire border fence destroyed when Border Patrol chased a vehicle back out of the U.S. on the southern edge of James Johnson's farm southeast of Columbus, N.M.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
CALEXICO, Calif, 2006: For two years, Nelly Arrizon, left, has seen her 23-year-old son, Roger, only through the border fence between her side in Calexico, Calif., and his side in Mexicali, Mexico. More fencing and stricter security represents an inconvenience for many border communities whose residents are used to a short, direct route between towns in the U.S. and in Mexico.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION, Ariz., 2006: This broken-down truck was to be driven illegally across Menager's Dam Gate on the Tohono O�odham Reservation. At the tribe�s request, a vehicle barrier will go up later this year.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN DIEGO, 2006: Standing on the Mexican side of the steel fence separating Tijuana from San Diego, Gerardo Daniel Cruz, 13, of Rosarito, Mexico, recalls his two trips to America - to Disneyland and to the San Diego Zoo - both earned as rewards for academic achievement. After the attacks of Sept. 11, his school rewards program was eliminated, one of many changes brought on by added border security.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Mex, 2006: Marcelina Perez, 32, gives her daughter Luz Zarate, 3, a kiss while taking a cooling dip in the water from a city pump that runs behind the family's home. Perez said she manages a swim about once a month.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
BOCA CHICA BEACH, Texas, 2006: Looking ahead: On a dare, Mexican industrial designer Rolando Garcia, 27, made a quick illegal crossing to Boca Chica Beach with friends. If he were to stay, he said in Spanish, "I would go to get the knowledge to bring back and create jobs. If I start my own business, that would be a few."
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Mex, 2006: Brenda Zarate, 6, stands on the bridge that runs in front of her house, overlooking a gap in the border fence that allows for the passage of an international waterway. The opening is monitored by border patrol agents around the clock, in addition to automatic cameras, portable lighting units, and additional fencing.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
LOCHIEL, Ariz., 2006: A sign from "Dog" warns visitors to stay away from a run-down house in Lochiel, a tiny border community about 20 miles east of Nogales, Ariz. The town used to be an official U.S.-Mexican border crossing, but the remote entry port closed years ago. These days, only a flimsy fence marks the international boundary.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
DEL RIO, Texas, 2006: For 40 years, Shirley Johnson has lived blocks from the border in Del Rio, Texas. Her late husband reported so many illegal entrants that the Border Patrol gave him a motion sensor, still in the front yard. Her husband once held three crossers at gunpoint, she said, prompting one to ask an arriving Border Patrol agent, "Does he have the right to do that?" The agent answered: "Do you have the right to be here?"
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION, Ariz., 2006: A broken wooden cross lies on a grave Ofelia Rivas tends on the Tohono O'odham Nation. A few feet away, stakes, painted pink and strung with green ribbon and barbed wire, mark the border. "It would be difficult for us to support a wall or a big fence," O'odham Chairwoman Vivian Juan-Saunders says, citing sensitive archaeological sites and the need of Mexican O'odham for transborder crossings.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
EL PASO, Texas, 2006: Pedestrians in El Paso head both toward Mexico and farther into the United States. Owing in part to stricter security since 9/11, the number of people passing into the U.S. fell from 290 million in 2000 to 242 million in 2004. �When people feel they have a two-hour wait to cross a bridge � they tend to stay away,� El Paso market owner Martin Silva says.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
EL PASO, Texas, 2006: Jesus Robeles throws his net into the junction between the Rio Grande and an irrigation canal on the U.S. bank of the border in EL Paso, TX. Robeles was fishing with his two sons under the gaze of a nearby Border Patrol agent.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN YSIDRO, Calif, 2006: One of the double layer U.S./Mexico border fence that runs 14 miles separating San Diego County and Tijuana. Photo taken east of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Port of Entry in San Ysidro.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK, 2006: A teenager herds horses across the Rio Grande into the Mexican state of Coahuila from Big Bend National Park. American tourists and Mexican villagers used to cross the river at Boquillas, which was a loosely enforced Class B port of entry and popular tourist destination. Such crossings are no longer permitted, but residents of Boquillas continue to cross from time to time with their livestock.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN YSIDRO, Calif, 2006: A United States Border Patrol vehicle patrols the United States side of the U.S. border with Mexico just outside of San Ysidro, Calif. and Tijuana, Mexico.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN YSIDRO, Calif, 2006: Maayan Hermoni, 17 , of Israel, sits in Border State Park along the U.S. Mexico Border in San Ysidro, Calif. during part of a tour for a youth leadership organization for Israeli youth. Hermoni said that she knows what it is like to live in a place separated by a border, but that it is hard for her to compare the situation in the United States and Mexico to the Gaza Strip. "Her is is about work' she said, "there, it is about terror".
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Mex, 2006: Sleeping on the floor of the Perez one-bedroom home in San Luis del Rio Colorado, Sonora, are, from left, Brayan Perez, 11, and his cousins: Luz, 3; Jairo, 12; Brenda, 6; Angel, 2; and Aldo Zarate, 9. Brayan spends a lot of time with his cousins along the international boundary at their small home.
ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 2006 Border Project
AGUA PRIETA, Mex, 2006: An Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico, city bus drives through standing water from the day's rains as it makes its way along a dirt road on the Mexican side of the border fence.
Contact reporter Danyelle Khmara at dkhmara@tucson.com or 573-4223. On Twitter:
Danyelle Khmara
Reporter
Magnus says his priorities differed from those of his bosses
