Documenting The Dead On The Arizona Border: Lonely Remains Are Matched To Lost Loved Ones

*The remains of 900 deceased undocumented migrants remain unidentified. VL


fronteras deskBy Michel Marizco, Fronteras Desk

On August 8 of this year, a U.S. Border Patrol agent tracking a group of illegal immigrants from Mexico came upon the lonely remains of what was likely a person who’d crossed the border into the U.S. some time ago. The remains were scattered, incomplete and the person they once comprised, was unidentified, unknown.

It’s an old story in this quiet desert. A slow and and very lonesome death. Smugglers are paid to guide people through trails that slither through green mesquite and palo verde but too often, leave clients behind in the rush to keep moving and avoid detection. Some migrants choose to bypass the enterprising criminal networks and go it alone. But in doing so, they risk the possibility of becoming overwhelmed by the magnitude of a long walk through hard country.

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This desert holds bones and it guards their identity like secrets.

The bodies of nearly 900 people remain unidentified in Pima County, the result of years of illegal border crossings that funneled people through the Arizona desert. Now, a new program is underway at the Pima County Medical Examiner in Tucson to use DNA to match those remains to thousands of people who’ve been reported missing.

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[Photo courtesy of Latino American Herald Tribune]

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