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IRONWOOD FOREST NATIONAL MONUMENT, Arizona -- After strapping on knee-high snake guards and bowing his head to invoke God's protection, Óscar Andrade marched off into a remote desert at dawn on a recent Sunday to look for a Honduran migrant. His family said he had gone missing in late July "between the two hills where the backpacks are."
Óscar Andrade leads a group of volunteers who search the Arizona desert looking for the remains of missing migrants.
This summer has been especially lethal for migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexican border illegally.
Migrant deaths in Arizona's deserts have fallen sharply so far this year, even as the number of immigrants caught trying to cross the state's border with Mexico has been soaring, but advocates cautioned against reading too much into the numbers.
In Sasabe, Arizona, along the U.S.-Mexico border, far-right Christian nationalists and QAnon adherents have steadily visited the area trying to detain migrants to stop a supposed migrant invasion.