Death’s Dry Desert Trail: The Unspoken Consequences of Border Policy

The Arizona desert has become a graveyard for migrants seeking refuge in the United States. Nineteen bodies were recently discovered along the Arizona-Mexico border, bringing the total number of migrant deaths this year to 73 – 14 more than at the same time last year. Experts and advocates point to these numbers as evidence that US policy is ineffective and deadly.

The statistics on migrant deaths are stark and underreported. Over the past 25 years, Humane Borders has recorded an average of one migrant death in the Arizona desert every other day – totaling over 4,500 fatalities. Dehydration and exposure are the most common causes of death, but hypothermia and blunt force trauma also claim lives.

These deaths often go unnoticed until chance encounters by hikers or law enforcement officers. However, experts estimate that for every migrant remains found, many more may not be discovered at all – a sobering reality that underscores the desert’s ability to conceal and destroy evidence quickly.

US policy has contributed significantly to the instability in other countries whose people are now seeking refuge. The asylum process is notoriously difficult to navigate, with only a fraction of applicants being granted entry. The actions of ICE and the CBP One app’s “self-deportation” encouragement have made crossing more perilous.

Operation Gatekeeper, launched in 1994 under the Clinton administration, exemplifies the ongoing strategy of prevention through deterrence. By making safer entry points less accessible, people are driven to risk their lives in more treacherous terrain – a dynamic that has persisted for over three decades.

The Biden administration’s efforts to reform asylum policies have had some impact on reducing “encounters” at ports of entry, yet the journey remains as deadly as ever. Brad Jones, a professor from California, makes a striking comparison: if every July for 26 years straight, a commercial airliner crashed in the Arizona desert, killing between 100 and 250 people each time, we’d be outraged.

The numbers are undeniable: 4,505 migrant fatalities in the Arizona desert over two and a half decades. This tragedy should prompt a collective moral and ethical reckoning. Instead of treating these deaths as isolated incidents or mere statistics, we need to confront the systemic failures that drive people to risk everything.

The silence surrounding these deaths speaks volumes about our society’s values. How can we justify the dehumanization of those seeking refuge while simultaneously decrying the risks and hardships they face? The answer lies in acknowledging the complicity of US policy in creating this crisis – and taking responsibility for it.

As the debate around immigration reform continues, it’s essential that we don’t lose sight of the human cost. These 19 lives are just a fraction of the thousands who’ve lost their way in the desert, seeking a better life but finding only death instead.