The tragic deaths of 53 migrants in a San Antonio truck last month was appalling, but it may be only a narrow insight into the loss of life on and near the southern border. An actual number of recent immigrant deaths is hard to come by because U.S. Customs Border and Protection has not been reporting it. In fact, the agency has not reported official borderwide deaths since 2020.
After a series of recommendations included in a Government Accountability Office report last April, CBP has at last promised to resume counting the dead as it should have been all along. But we will have to wait until late September to have a clearer picture. Meanwhile, an important piece of information is missing to know what exactly is going on at the border, and we still have at least two months of summer weather with record high temperatures.
Counting the number of migrant deaths is not only a legal requirement that CBP has with Congress, but an accurate report would also inform Border Patrol, an agency that is part of CBP, on how we might reduce the frequency of these deaths.
We are glad the CBP has decided to take the necessary steps, but sadly the agency needed a chiding from the GAO to get its act together. A spokesperson from CBP did not answer questions on why the agency stopped counting migrant deaths altogether.
Beginning in 2017, the Border Patrol collected and reviewed information on migrant deaths through its Missing Migrant Program. This was a crucial tool for families to know about their loved ones’ fates, but also to help Border Patrol to identify high-risk areas for migrants.
According to the nonprofit Washington Office on Latin America, “migrants continue to die at the U.S.-Mexico border, usually of drowning, dehydration, exposure, or falls from the border wall, with a frequency that seems unprecedented.”
Some anecdotal evidence includes 25 Nicaragua citizens who have drowned in the Rio Grande since March 4, according to WOLA. And Mexico’s migration authorities report that 37 bodies were recovered between January and May.
The GAO was clear about the need to reevaluate the way Border Patrol collects and reviews information about its Missing Migrant Program activities. CBP promised it will have a plan ready for December. We wonder why it ever stopped its review. Knowledge of what is happening at the border is important for humane and effective enforcement.
But according to WOLA, over the past decade, the Border Patrol has been reporting fewer deaths than local humanitarian groups or medical examiners. One of the GAO recommendations for the CBP is to include migrant deaths reported by external entities.
CBP reported almost 240,000 unauthorized crossings in May, a number that is expected to grow. A pandemic-era policy, Title 42, in which unauthorized immigrants are expelled but not processed, has contributed to a faint picture of crossings and deaths at the border since there are many repeated attempts. However, CBP included in its May count 177,793 “unique individuals,” a 15% increase from the previous month.
“The terrain along the Southwest Border is extreme, the summer heat is severe, and the miles of desert that migrants must hike after crossing the border are unforgiving,” said CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus in a recent press release.
All the more reason to have reliable information sooner than later.
