Researchers, academics and forensic experts from all four southern-border states met Friday at the University of 蜜柚直播 to pursue a set of shared goals: developing a standardized system to document migrant deaths along the U.S.-Mexico border, and building a centralized database to help illuminate trends in migration.

Effective and humane border policy requires a deeper understanding of migrant deaths border-wide 鈥� and that requires good data, said Daniel E. Mart铆nez, co-director of the UA鈥檚 Binational Migration Institute and an associate professor of sociology.

Mart铆nez is a member of the multi-state working group whose members gathered at the UA Student Union Memorial Center Friday for a mini-workshop. It was the public portion of the group鈥檚 three-day conference on migrant deaths, funded by a grant from the UA鈥檚 Office of Research, Innovation and Impact.

Lacking reliable federal data on migrant deaths at the border, stakeholders in various states have taken it upon themselves to develop sound methods to document the deaths. These efforts will hopefully also help policymakers better understand the impact of U.S. border policy, Mart铆nez said.

The Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner has led the way in this field, and has become a model for other forensic efforts.

鈥淭hey really represent the gold standard when it comes to trying to classify, enumerate and track migrant deaths, and also to work with consulates and NGOs to help identify individuals and reunite the remains with loved ones,鈥� Mart铆nez said. 鈥淣othing like this really exists in other regions of border.鈥�

The workshop鈥檚 panelists 鈥� hailing from California, 蜜柚直播, New Mexico and Texas 鈥� discussed their efforts to count migrant deaths, the challenges they face and their progress so far.

Forensic anthropologist Molly Miranker, postdoctoral researcher at Texas State University, pointed to the developed by 蜜柚直播 nonprofit Humane Borders and the Pima County medical examiner鈥檚 office. The level of detail in the mortality data enables meaningful analysis that simply can鈥檛 happen in other jurisdictions, she said at the conference.

鈥淚 cannot stress enough how important it is that 蜜柚直播, for now, is the only jurisdiction that can do meaningful geospatial analysis, trend analysis, even predictive models ... and potential indicators for identification based on these data,鈥� she said. 鈥淣o one else does this.鈥�

Just before Friday鈥檚 public event began, Dr. Raquel Rubio-Goldsmith, who co-founded the UA鈥檚 Binational Migration Institute in 2004 and is considered the 鈥渕other of ethnic studies鈥� in 蜜柚直播, described her joy at seeing so many experts gathered there, and her sadness that this work is still so necessary.

She recalled when migrant deaths began accumulating in the Southern 蜜柚直播 desert, following the 1994 implementation of the U.S. border policy known as 鈥減revention through deterrence." She and colleagues started working to compile reliable, 鈥渞igorous鈥� data on the phenomenon. She said it was due to the openness and compassion of the county鈥檚 then-medical examiner, Dr. Bruce Parks, that they were able to launch the work that continues today: chronicling the migrant-death crisis.

鈥淗e is a hero,鈥� she said of Parks. 鈥淗e allowed us to go into his archives and his data, and let us use it, so we could begin to make sense of what was happening.鈥�

Nearly two decades later, those efforts are more important than ever, Rubio-Goldsmith said.

Border Patrol data lacking

More than 4,100 people have died in the Southern 蜜柚直播 desert since 1990. That includes 27 sets of human remains discovered in September alone, according to preliminary monthly data shared by Mike Kreyche, mapping coordinator for Humane Borders.

But along the southern border, researchers are still struggling to get an accurate picture of the number of migrant deaths on U.S. soil.

The official are unreliable, Mart铆nez said. Especially in the past decade, they have deviated significantly from the numbers reported by the Pima County medical examiner鈥檚 office in the 蜜柚直播 sector, he said.

For example, in fiscal year 2021, Border Patrol鈥檚 count of border deaths in the 蜜柚直播 Sector was 78, compared to the 225 recorded by the Pima County medical examiner.

鈥淭here has been a notable disconnect,鈥� Mart铆nez said.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson did not directly respond to the Star鈥檚 questions, submitted on Tuesday, about this disparity and about the challenges in getting an accurate count.

In a statement, the CBP spokesperson emphasized the dangers of crossing the border between ports of entry, despite false claims 鈥� repeated by human smugglers persuading migrants to make the trip 鈥� that the U.S. has 鈥渙pen borders.鈥�

鈥淲hen migrants cross the border illegally, they put their lives in peril,鈥� the statement said. 鈥淣o one should believe smugglers or others claiming the borders are open. The borders are not open and people should not make the dangerous journey; individuals and families are subject to border restrictions, including expulsion.鈥�

Challenges in other states

蜜柚直播 has advantages in locating and counting migrant remains, compared to other states, Mart铆nez said.

蜜柚直播 tends to have larger counties that are better resourced than Texas counties. 蜜柚直播 border counties also have a lot of public land, which is easier to gain access to than the mostly private ranch land on Texas鈥� border with Mexico. And while the Southern 蜜柚直播 terrain is rugged, at least it鈥檚 walkable, Mart铆nez said. Texas has a lot of deep sand and low scrub brush that makes it 鈥渁lmost impossible to get in there and look for remains,鈥� he said.

The large number of small counties is a challenge for researchers trying to calculate migrant deaths in the state, panelists said during the workshop. Most of the counties in Texas don鈥檛 have a medical examiner; they have justices of the peace, who are also responsible for civil court cases and marriages, and have little training in forensics, said Courtney Siegert, anthropologist and post-doctoral scholar at Texas State University.

Stephanie Leutert of the University of Texas at Austin described the process of compiling migrant-death counts from three Texas counties, and comparing them with the official figures from Border Patrol. She found between 2009 and 2017, Border Patrol missed 128 of the cases reported by the counties, she said. She also noted that Border Patrol reported 74 cases that weren鈥檛 in the county data during that period.

Marni LaFleur, of the University of San Diego, said it鈥檚 only been recently that death investigators in Southern California have begun noting whether someone may be a migrant, and it鈥檚 not always clear how individual counties define a migrant death, she said.

Her attempt to count migrant deaths using publicly available data found 2,051 deaths in two counties 鈥� San Diego and Imperial counties 鈥� since the early 1990s.

鈥淭his data is not pretty, it鈥檚 not easy to map,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut I think the important thing to note is that California is not a place where this happens once in a while; this is something that鈥檚 happening all the time.鈥�

In New Mexico, the number of border deaths has historically been low, said Heather Edgar, forensic anthropologist at the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator. That鈥檚 because the state has a short border with Mexico, fewer economic opportunities compared with other states and rugged terrain south of the border, she said.

But in the last two years, the number of border deaths has exponentially increased, as overall migration rates have surged and border enforcement in Texas has pushed more migrants to the west, she said.

The state is newly confronting challenges that stakeholders in states like 蜜柚直播 have long been dealing with, she said.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 know how we鈥檙e going to pay for DNA analyses,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 know how we鈥檙e going to deal with long-term storage (of unidentified remains.) ... How will we adjust to this new caseload?鈥�

Focus on policy

This weekend鈥檚 conference was the first in-person meeting of the migrant-deaths working group, which has been meeting virtually since October 2021.

The working group was initially organized by Cate Bird, missing persons and forensic manager for the International Committee of the Red Cross. The ICRC鈥檚 role has been to connect working-group members with one another, and also to connect the working group with similar forensic and research efforts outside the southwest border region, including around the Mediterranean Sea, where tens of thousands of migrants have drowned trying to reach Europe.

鈥淲e鈥檙e really optimistic about what this group can achieve,鈥� Bird said. 鈥淲e may have initially brought people together, but the working group members themselves have taken the lead and really owned this.鈥�

Central to the mission of the working group is maintaining a focus on the humanity of deceased migrants, as well as on their surviving loved ones, Mart铆nez said. Working group members also hope to create a border-wide centralized database of unidentified migrants, which could aid in efforts to use DNA analysis to identify missing migrants and repatriate their remains.

Mapping the locations where remains were found also helps identify sites where multiple migrants have died. That information not only aids advocates who place water for migrants in distress and conduct search-and-rescue missions, but it can shed light on the human impact of U.S. border enforcement policy, Mart铆nez said.

For example, to better understand the impact of Title 42 pandemic-era border policy, Mart铆nez studied the location of migrant deaths in the 蜜柚直播 Sector before and after the policy was implemented.

Title 42, technically a public-health code, allowed border agents to immediately expel most migrants without giving them the opportunity to request asylum. Previously migrants were usually apprehended under Title 8 and had the opportunity to request a credible-fear interview, which could open the door to an asylum hearing.

Migrants apprehended and expelled under Title 42, which expired in May, were more likely to cross again, Mart铆nez said. About 26% of migrants crossed again between ports of entry after being expelled, compared with 7% before Title 42鈥檚 implementation, he said.

Those repeated efforts could explain mapping data that shows a greater concentration of migrant remains close to the border, suggesting repeat border crossers were in a weakened state and were more at risk of succumbing to dehydration and exhaustion, he said.

鈥淲e need to continue to work on this,鈥� Mart铆nez said at the workshop. 鈥淚 think we鈥檙e starting to scratch the surface of what鈥檚 going on.鈥�