Border wall or not, ‘people will find a way’ Waiting for news
Riskier routes mean more migrants dying during their crossings
As she climbs out of the truck, it’s clear Selene Ramirez has never hiked in the desert.
Her flimsy sneakers are no match for the thorny cholla pods that easily pierce foam-rubber soles. And as she shoulders her small backpack, it is obvious Ramirez is not carrying enough water for a nearly five-hour trek on a day when the late-June Arizona temperatures will soar to 108 degrees.
But out there in the desert is a corpse. Several migrants passing through the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument area, a well-traveled route for illegal immigration, have reported seeing it. They say it’s near a dirt road south of Kino Peak, a tooth-shaped mountain formation nicknamed La Muela, the molar.
Ramirez fears it’s the body of her 25year-old brother, Carlos Martinez. He became sick after crossing the border illegally in mid-June. In the area where he crossed, there is no border wall, something President Donald Trump has vowed to build to halt unauthorized migration.
If the corpse is her brother’s, Ramirez is determined to find it and end the agonizing uncertainty her family has endured since Martinez went missing.
The remains of at least 2,832 migrants have been found in southern Arizona since 2001, according to the Arizona OpenGIS Initiative for Deceased Migrants. Nearly 40% (1,089) have never been identified.
The initiative, a joint project between the Tucson-based group Humane Borders and the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office, plots on an interactive map the location of every deceased migrant who has been found. There are so many red circles on the map, southern Arizona resembles a sea of blood.
But the area wasn’t always a vast graveyard for migrants, says Chelsea Halstead, deputy director of the Colibri Center for Human Rights.
The Colibri Center collects DNA samples and other information to identify those remains.
Prior to 2000, fewer than five dead migrants were found in southern Arizona each year, according to the OpenGIS data.
But the number soared to 79 in 2001, as illegal immigration from Mexico to the U.S. surged and increased border security in California and Texas funneled more migrants through more remote and dangerous routes in Arizona.
The peak came in 2010, when 224 remains were found.
Since then, Border Patrol apprehensions, a proxy for the number of people crossing illegally, have plummeted. Still, the number of dead migrants found each year remains high, with 169 recovered in 2016, according to the OpenGIS data.
The data shows that while fewer people are crossing illegally, more are taking riskier routes, Halstead says.
“What we know is that people will find a way (to get across) whether there is a wall or not,” Halstead says. “What we can predict with this is just that more people will be put in harm’s way … and more of them are going to die in the desert.”
Two deportations
In July, several weeks after her brother went missing in mid-June, Ramirez reported her brother missing to the Colibri Center. At the time Ramirez reported her brother missing, the center had 2,454 open cases of missing migrants border-wide reported by family members.
Carlos Martinez had lived in Arizona almost his entire life, Ramirez says. Their mother brought him to the U.S. illegally when he was 9 months old. Ramirez was born in Phoenix four years later, making her a U.S. citizen.
Ramirez says her brother considered Arizona home. He had “AZ” tattooed on his left shoulder inside an outline of the state. In 2016, her brother was deported. It was the second time. He was deported first in 2010 after pleading guilty that year to a misdemeanor charge of marijuana possession and separately to a felony charge of unlawfully discharging a firearm, ICE says. The firearm charge occurred when Martinez was 17, court records show.
Their mother had moved back to Cananea, Sonora, years ago. After Martinez was deported, he moved in with her, but yearned to be back in Phoenix.
Re-entering the U.S. illegally after being deported is a felony. And as a convicted felon if caught again, Martinez would face up to 20 years in federal prison.
Most likely he crossed near the kilometer 19 marker on Mexico Highway 2, a well-known departure point about 12 miles west of Sonoyta, after being dropped off there by smugglers.
That part of the border is divided by shoulder-high metal barriers welded together from old railroad tracks. The barriers are designed to prevent vehicles from driving across, not people. They are easy to climb over.
What’s more daunting is the other side. It’s an 80-mile journey to Gila Bend, the most common smuggling destination. The hike through mountainous desert terrain can take seven to 10 days.
Two days after Martinez crossed, Ramirez received a call from one of the people in his group.
He told her that Martinez had started feeling sick. He was throwing up. First he said he was going to turn himself in to the Border Patrol. Then he decided to keep going. That was the last time the migrant saw him.
‘Zero percent’
Agent Daniel Hernandez pulls his Border Patrol vehicle to the side of Highway 85, which splits the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument nearly in half. So far, it is a slow day.
The 500-square-mile preserve stretches as far as the eye can see.
As his radio crackles in the background, Hernandez explains why this part of the border is so dangerous.
First of all, the terrain is so barren and remote, migrants can’t cross without the help of smugglers, and therefore are putting their lives in the hands of people they don’t know.
“Zero percent cross on their own,” he says.
Second, it’s easy to get lost, even with a smuggler.
What about Trump’s border wall? Would that help prevent migrant deaths?
Hernandez says it’s not his job to comment on political issues. But fences alone don’t stop people from crossing the border illegally, he says.
Later that day, Hernandez hears a call on his radio. A Department of Homeland Security helicopter patrolling by air has spotted two migrants running south near Charlie Bell Pass.
The agents catch one of the migrants after a short chase on foot through the desert.
The 28-year-old migrant says his name is Roger Antonio Paiz Leyton and he is from Nicaragua. He had been walking in the desert for 10 days trying to reach Gila Bend. Along the way, he says, he saw at least 10 dead migrants. “Can we head back?” It’s nearly 1 p.m. The sun is high overhead. The temperature is now nearing 111 degrees. Ramirez is sick.
Now it is a 4-mile hike back to the truck. By the time they arrive, Ramirez is limping. She has blisters on her feet. Her head is pounding.
On the drive back to Ajo, Ramirez calls her mother, who is waiting for news.
“No encontramos nada,” Ramirez tells her in Spanish. We didn’t find anything.
Then, on July 17, a group of migrants discovered the remains of a migrant in the desert not far from the area where Martinez was last seen alive. The male body was too badly decomposed to identify. It was mostly bones. But the remains may belong to Martinez because of several clues.
The straight white teeth indicate the body belonged to a young man. He had dark hair; he was wearing camouflage clothing; and the label on his underwear says Fruit of the Loom, just like the underwear Martinez received as a gift before he crossed the border.
A few days later, Selene Ramirez says, her mother took a bus six hours from her home in Cananea to Sonoyta to look at the body, after it was recovered by Mexican authorities. She also provided Mexican authorities a sample of her DNA.
Nearly two months later, she was is still waiting for the results.