SUNLAND PARK, NM – For each of the past two summers, Laura Mae Williams, who recovers bodies for the New Mexico Office of the Medical Examiner, has had to travel to the U.S.-Mexico border several times a week.
“It’s not unusual for me to come to a body that’s been found, and then for the Border Patrol to find another or maybe two additional bodies in different locations,” Williams said.
It used to be rare for migrants to die after crossing the US-Mexico border across the state line in the desert west of El Paso, Texas. The Office of the Medical Examiner, part of the University of New Mexico Health System, recovered only a few bodies a year. But so far this year, the office has removed 121 sets of such remains, breaking last year’s record of 116. This is a more than thirteen-fold increase from five years ago.
Unlike the vast, remote deserts of Arizona, where migrants have died in significant numbers for years, the area experiencing this spike in deaths is relatively small, surrounded by highways and the western outskirts of El Paso.
In many cases, people die within a few yards of suburban areas and paved roads.
Most deaths are heat-related. Although a relatively small desert area, temperatures regularly reach triple digits in the summer, with sand temperatures sometimes reaching 150 degrees.
“In these extreme conditions, even if you’re well-hydrated and well-nourished, it’s going to wear on the body,” Williams said. And in many cases, migrants spend days in poor conditions in smugglers’ safe houses, neither hydrated nor well-nourished.
First responders, elected officials and advocates in New Mexico attribute the rise in deaths largely to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, which tightened the border in downtown El Paso and encouraged smugglers to try routes west of the city in New Mexico.
Abbott’s press secretary, Andrew Mahaleris, blamed the federal government for the deaths. “Operation Lone Star helps prevent illegal crossings by diverting migrants to a place where they can safely and legally cross one of the 29 international bridges on the Texas-Mexico border,” Mahaleris told NBC News.
The deaths followed a historical pattern. Migrants often die in greater numbers after enforcement efforts push smuggling routes out of urban areas and into more remote and dangerous crossings.
Officials, including the New Mexico Office of the Medical Examiner, blame the deaths on smugglers, noting that in many cases they leave the people behind — only after taking their phones.
“This raises an important question,” said Dr. Heather Jarrell. “If you leave a person to die in the middle of the desert, why is that not manslaughter?”