HOUSTON – For the third straight year, migrant deaths along the southern border have decreased, even in the desolate stretches of desert where the number of northbound migrants spiked, authorities said Tuesday.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that there were 240 migrant deaths on the border for the fiscal year that ended in September, down from 308 deaths last year and 365 five years ago.
Despite a recent surge – particularly with migrant families and unaccompanied children fleeing violence in countries such as Honduras and El Salvador – the number of migrants caught crossing the border this fiscal year is expected to drop to the lowest point in more than 40 years, about 330,000.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced this month that he was extending the deployment of National Guard troops along the border and taking additional steps to increase security. On Wednesday, he plans to visit troops in the Rio Grande Valley, epicenter of the latest influx of migrants.
Border Patrol officials credit the drop in migrant deaths to their ability to apprehend more stranded migrants. But advocates said the picture is likely far more complicated.
In the Rio Grande Valley in the southern tip of Texas, agents reported 97 deaths compared with 116 the previous fiscal year. Border Patrol officials said better surveillance technology and more robust inland checkpoints likely helped in that decline.
“It has reduced deaths,” acting Chief Patrol Agent Paul Ortiz said during a visit to a checkpoint last week, “And rescues are up. I’m putting more search and rescue teams out there; we’re putting helicopters out there, border watch teams and ranchers.”
Smugglers often drop migrants in ranch land south of the checkpoint, promising to pick them up on the other side. In recent years, many got lost or died on the massive ranches – including the fabled King Ranch, as large as the state of Rhode Island.
So far this fiscal year, there have been nine deaths in the Rio Grande Valley compared with 25 in the same period last year, he said.
“We do everything we can to triangulate where they are and get out there,” Ortiz said.
Agents in the Rio Grande Valley have rescued 136 migrants so far this fiscal year compared to 115 this time last year, Ortiz said.
But some immigrant advocates dispute those figures.
Eddie Canales, director of the South Texas Human Rights Center, noted that the Border Patrol’s definition of “rescue” includes more than just migrants saved in the field – for instance, those found being smuggled in vehicles stopped at checkpoints are considered rescued.
His count of migrant deaths in Brooks County is also down this calendar year: 45, compared to 61 last year. Canales suspects the recorded death toll would be higher if the Border Patrol spent more time and resources searching for migrants who might have gone missing in the vast Rio Grande Valley.
Migrant deaths in the Rio Grande Valley are still more than triple what they were five years ago. Some areas of the border saw a slight increase in deaths last fiscal year, including El Paso and Yuma, which have seen a spike in unaccompanied children and families crossing as smugglers shift west of Texas, experts say.
In Brooks County, Canales installs water barrels on ranch land for stranded migrants, fields phone calls from relatives of the missing – up to 50 a month – and searches for remains.
“Overall things are not getting better,” Canales said, “I will not be satisfied until we have no more deaths.”
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