Migrant Border Deaths Surge with Increased Enforcement and Militarization, Expert Says
On 5/4/21 at 8:51 AM EDT
In southern Arizona s Sonoran Desert, where temperatures can get as high as 125, the Tucson-based nonprofit No More Deaths operates a humanitarian aid camp for migrants making their way north through the barren, sun-bleached landscape.
At a minimum, almost everyone who comes to the camp suffers from exposure and dehydration, Sammy Rovner, a volunteer with the agency s media team, said. In the winter months, some suffer from hypothermia, having made the trip through the nearby mountains. Many migrants show up with knee injuries, scrapes, and blisters across the bottoms of their feet.
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Occasionally, the hikers came across a piece of clothing, a water bottle, a backpack, or a .50 caliber bullet casing leftover from bombing and live-fire exercises at the nearby Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range. But signs of human life are largely absent in this harsh and unforgiving landscape. The southern Arizona sun, 15 miles from the Mexico border, was brutally hot, even in the early hours of a March morning. The intimidating Growler Mountains loomed over the flat and exposed desert expanse from the east. Shade could be found under the sparse trees that lined a sprawling wash that snaked through the Growler Valley. But to reach the trees often meant passing through thickets of dry, thorny brush that surrounded them.
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