DISAPPEARED: HOW THE US BORDER ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES ARE FUELING A MISSING PERSONS CRISIS
A Report Series by La Coalición de Derechos Humanos and No More Deaths
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INTRODUCTION: Crisis of Disappearance
There is a crisis of disappearance in the US-Mexico borderlands. La Coalición de Derechos Humanos and No More Deaths are publishing a report that sheds light on how - over the past 20 years and across 2,000 miles of border - tens of thousands of people have disappeared while attempting to cross into the United States.
WHO ARE THE DISAPPEARED?
The word “disappeared” refers to those people who go missing while crossing the border because of the actions of the US Border Patrol. In the 2015 calendar year alone, the community organization La Coalición de Derechos Humanos opened over 1,200 cases of people who were reported missing by friends and family following an attempt to cross the US–Mexico border. According to our survey, in 21.4% of the cases where people crossed through remote wilderness, they were disappeared.
WHY USE THE TERM “DISAPPEARED”?
We use the language of disappearance to name an underreported dimension of the violence in the Southwest borderlands. This violence is experienced both by those who go missing and by their loved ones, who are left wondering if they are alive. “Disappearance” is also the very language repeated by families who called Derechos Humanos’ Missing Migrant Crisis Line and frequently declared: “Estoy buscando a una persona desaparecida.” (I’m looking for a disappeared person.)
We also use this language in order to draw parallels with historical examples of state violence and repression.
ISN’T THIS DIFFERENT FROM DISAPPEARANCES COMMITTED BY POLICE IN MEXICO, CHILE, AND OTHER COUNTRIES?
The UN provided a definition of “enforced disappearance” in a treaty ratified in 20061 which we believe encompasses the disappearances of people attempting to cross the US-Mexico border. As activists and human rights organizations in Mexico have pointed out, the disappearance of border crossers is indirect disappearance, i.e. no specific individuals are targeted.In the US Southwest, the disappearance of hundreds of border crossers is not a natural or inevitable phenomenon, but rather a direct consequence of US border-enforcement policies and practices. The US government has failed to acknowledge the violent impacts of their policies on individuals and families, which effectively bars victims from seeking recourse. (http://www.un.org/en/events/disappearancesday/background.shtmlfaCtsheet)
WHY ARE DEATHS AND DISAPPEARANCES HAPPENING?
In 1994, the US Border Patrol implemented the policy of Prevention Through Deterrence. With a goal of controlling the Southwest border, the Border Patrol increased the risk of unauthorized entry. The agency built walls and placed more agents in urban ports in order to push migration into wilderness areas. The agency hoped that border crossers would now find themselves “in mortal danger” when attempting to enter the US. (http://cw.routledge.com/text-books/9780415996945/gov-docs/1994.pdf) The increased danger, and even death, was intended to deter other people from crossing, with the overall goal of preventing migration.
Twenty years later, the US Border Patrol has also put in place surveillance towers, infrared cameras, and sensors. Now, the border between the US and Mexico is not a line to cross but a vast zone of enforcement that extends into the US interior.
A STORY OF DISAPPEARANCE
The brother of Juan Manuel called the The Missing Migrant Crisis Line in November of 2015 looking for information about his brother, who had attempted to cross through South Texas. Someone from Juan Manuel’s group had called from detention to tell his family that Border Patrol agents had chased the group in the backcountry and apprehended everyone in the group except for Juan Manuel. Juan Manuel remains disappeared to this day. His family is currently working to submit a DNA sample to the national missing person’s DNA databank, so that they might be reunited with Juan Manuel’s body.
WHAT SHOULD WE DO?
Some of our recommendations:
- Abolish the strategy of Prevention through Deterrence which, since its adoption by the US Border Patrol in 1994, is responsible for pushing unauthorized border crossers into remote and deadly terrain.
- Make the preservation of human life, human rights, and human dignity the cornerstone and guiding principle of all Department of Homeland Security operations.
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Part I: Deadly Apprehension Methods
The Consequences of Chase & Scatter in the Wilderness
On the night of March 6, 2015, José Cesario Aguilar Esparza and his two nephews were crossing through the US–Mexico borderlands in the desert southeast of Ajo, Arizona when US Border Patrol agents detected their group and began chasing them. During the chase the three men became separated; Border Patrol agents arrested two of them, but José Cesario was unaccounted for. Later, it was discovered that he had fallen off a nearly two-hundred-foot cliff and died.
The death of José Cesario is not an aberration. Our report finds that the US Border Patrol routinely chases people, causing them to scatter, and directly contributing to their disappearance and/or death.
Since the mid-1990s, the US Border Patrol’s policy of Prevention Through Deterrence has intentionally pushed migration into increasingly remote corridors in the Southwest borderlands. This policy has turned the natural landscape into a lethal weapon that injures, kills, and disappears border crossers. Our report shines a light on the deadly practices that characterize enforcement in these hostile wilderness areas. The result: thousands of known deaths of undocumented border crossers, and an even greater number of disappearances—a crisis that has received far less attention. These individuals do not simply go missing, they are disappeared as part of a violent and deadly border-enforcement strategy carried out by the US government.
Despite the clear and mortal harms that Border Patrol practices inflict on human beings, the federal government does not publicly recognize the principal role of its enforcement activities in engineering this large-scale human catastrophe. Additionally, despite recent public-relations efforts to cast the Border Patrol in a humanitarian light, there is no indication on-the-ground that the agency is taking any meaningful steps to curb or eliminate the cruel enforcement practices documented in this report.
This report draws on two data sources. The first is the 544 cases collected by the Coalición de Derechos Humanos’s Missing Migrant Crisis Line in 2015. We supplemented this data by surveying 58 people who had attempt-ed to cross the US–Mexico border at least once within the last five years.
CONSEQUENCES OF CHASE
In the 58 interviews our survey team conducted, 67 instances of chase by Border Patrol agents in the wilderness have been documented.
Someone was injured by elements of the landscape in 41% of these chases (27 out of 66). The injuries included broken limbs, lacerations, sprained joints, and blisters. Such injuries, including some that under normal circumstances would count as minor, can be fatal when suffered in remote wilderness areas.
Border crossers were injured by arresting agents in 18% of the chases documented (12 out of 66). It is routine for US Border Patrol agents to use excessive force against border crossers in remote areas, especially during apprehension attempts involving chase. Tactics used during chase include tackles, dog attacks, tasing of fleeing suspects, beatings upon arrest, and assault with vehicles. Due to the Border Patrol’s reputation for violence against border crossers (including beatings, rapes, and shootings), those who encounter agents are prone to scatter even if they are disoriented, exhausted, or medically compromised.
Someone became lost to the surrounding wilderness in 42% of the chases documented (28 out of 66). The scattering that routinely results from chase by the Border Patrol leaves individuals disoriented, lost, and separated from their group, often without supplies necessary for survival.
The missing-persons cases collected by the Missing Migrant Crisis Line in 2015 include 84 in which an incident of chase and scatter in the wilderness was explicitly named as the event that caused the person to go missing. Of these cases, 36% ended in death or disappearance.
The use of helicopters is particularly dangerous, causing increased injury during chase and increased incidence of scatter. In our survey, 36% of the chases involved pursuit by helicopter. When a helicopter was present in a chase, it was significantly more likely that someone would end up lost afterward. (Helicopter chases were associated with significantly more lost people.)
Based on our research and continuous on-the-ground observation of border-enforcement activities, we assert that there is no policing method for interdicting border crossers in wilderness terrain that does not carry a high risk of injury, death, and disappearance. Consequently, we consider the first of this report’s five recommendations to be the most urgent: we call for the immediate end of Prevention Through Deterrence as an enforcement doctrine, as well as the removal of all walls, fencing, barriers, and other border infrastructure that serves to push migration into the deadly backcountry. We will only see the end of the crisis of disappearance with the complete demilitarization of the US–Mexico border. Federal immigration policy must be rewritten to protect human life and human rights, and to address the US-sponsored violence and economic disruption causing so many to seek refuge within these borders.
Until that day comes, the US Border Patrol and its collaborators bear responsibility for the crisis of death and disappearance in the Southwest borderlands.
WHAT IS CHASE? WHAT IS SCATTER?
HOW DOES CHASE PUT PEOPLE IN DANGER?
1. Increased Vulnerability to Environmental Hazards
Environmental hazards during pursuit often lead to injury and death. Border Patrol agents chase border crossers through the remote terrain and utilize the landscape as a weapon to slow down, injure, and apprehend people. We show how chases lead to heat exhaustion and dehydration, blisters and sprains, injuries due to falls, and drownings. 40.9 percent of incidents of chase documented by our survey resulted in someone being injured or killed.
2. Escalated Border Patrol Violence during Apprehension
Border Patrol violence is an outcome of chase. US Border Patrol agents regularly assault border crossers at the culmination of a chase. Assault then contributes to a cycle of violence where border crossers flee both from interdiction and from potential serious injury and death. Chase in remote areas commonly results in excessive use of force. In our survey, tackles, beatings, tasers, dog attacks and assault with vehicles were all reportedly employed by the US Border Patrol against border crossers during chase. 18.2 percent of incidents of chase resulted in someone being injured by Border Patrol agents during apprehension.
3. Increased Likelihood of Scatter
Scatter is one of the deadly and traumatic outcomes of chase. The scatter of border crossers causes spatial disorientation, separation from one’s guide and companions, loss of supplies and belongings, and exposure to the hazards of hostile terrain. In the remote wilderness, this directly leads to death and disappearance. 41.5 percent of respondents reported someone in the group becoming lost after being chased by agents.
HOW IS THIS RELATED TO DISAPPEARANCE?
In those cases that explicitly spoke of chase and scatter in the wilderness as the event that caused the person to go missing, 35.7% ended in death or disappearance.
HOW CAN WE MAKE APPREHENSION MORE SAFE?
Based on our research and our on-the-ground observation of border enforcement activities, we assert that there is no policing method for interdicting border crossers in wilderness terrain that will not entail high risk of injury, death and disappearance.
SO THEN WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?
We call for the immediate end of Prevention Through Deterrence as an enforcement doctrine, as well as the removal of all walls, fencing, barriers and other border infrastructure that serve to push migration into the deadly backcountry. We will only see the end of the crisis of disappearance with the complete de-militarization of the US-Mexico border. Federal immigration policy must be rewritten to protect human life and human rights, and to address the US-sponsored violence and economic disruption causing so many to seek refuge within these borders.
Download and print the full report
The Consequences of Chase & Scatter in the Wilderness
On the night of March 6, 2015, José Cesario Aguilar Esparza and his two nephews were crossing through the US–Mexico borderlands in the desert southeast of Ajo, Arizona when US Border Patrol agents detected their group and began chasing them. During the chase the three men became separated; Border Patrol agents arrested two of them, but José Cesario was unaccounted for. Later, it was discovered that he had fallen off a nearly two-hundred-foot cliff and died.
The death of José Cesario is not an aberration. Our report finds that the US Border Patrol routinely chases people, causing them to scatter, and directly contributing to their disappearance and/or death.
Since the mid-1990s, the US Border Patrol’s policy of Prevention Through Deterrence has intentionally pushed migration into increasingly remote corridors in the Southwest borderlands. This policy has turned the natural landscape into a lethal weapon that injures, kills, and disappears border crossers. Our report shines a light on the deadly practices that characterize enforcement in these hostile wilderness areas. The result: thousands of known deaths of undocumented border crossers, and an even greater number of disappearances—a crisis that has received far less attention. These individuals do not simply go missing, they are disappeared as part of a violent and deadly border-enforcement strategy carried out by the US government.
Despite the clear and mortal harms that Border Patrol practices inflict on human beings, the federal government does not publicly recognize the principal role of its enforcement activities in engineering this large-scale human catastrophe. Additionally, despite recent public-relations efforts to cast the Border Patrol in a humanitarian light, there is no indication on-the-ground that the agency is taking any meaningful steps to curb or eliminate the cruel enforcement practices documented in this report.
This report draws on two data sources. The first is the 544 cases collected by the Coalición de Derechos Humanos’s Missing Migrant Crisis Line in 2015. We supplemented this data by surveying 58 people who had attempt-ed to cross the US–Mexico border at least once within the last five years.
CONSEQUENCES OF CHASE
In the 58 interviews our survey team conducted, 67 instances of chase by Border Patrol agents in the wilderness have been documented.
Someone was injured by elements of the landscape in 41% of these chases (27 out of 66). The injuries included broken limbs, lacerations, sprained joints, and blisters. Such injuries, including some that under normal circumstances would count as minor, can be fatal when suffered in remote wilderness areas.
Border crossers were injured by arresting agents in 18% of the chases documented (12 out of 66). It is routine for US Border Patrol agents to use excessive force against border crossers in remote areas, especially during apprehension attempts involving chase. Tactics used during chase include tackles, dog attacks, tasing of fleeing suspects, beatings upon arrest, and assault with vehicles. Due to the Border Patrol’s reputation for violence against border crossers (including beatings, rapes, and shootings), those who encounter agents are prone to scatter even if they are disoriented, exhausted, or medically compromised.
Someone became lost to the surrounding wilderness in 42% of the chases documented (28 out of 66). The scattering that routinely results from chase by the Border Patrol leaves individuals disoriented, lost, and separated from their group, often without supplies necessary for survival.
The missing-persons cases collected by the Missing Migrant Crisis Line in 2015 include 84 in which an incident of chase and scatter in the wilderness was explicitly named as the event that caused the person to go missing. Of these cases, 36% ended in death or disappearance.
The use of helicopters is particularly dangerous, causing increased injury during chase and increased incidence of scatter. In our survey, 36% of the chases involved pursuit by helicopter. When a helicopter was present in a chase, it was significantly more likely that someone would end up lost afterward. (Helicopter chases were associated with significantly more lost people.)
Based on our research and continuous on-the-ground observation of border-enforcement activities, we assert that there is no policing method for interdicting border crossers in wilderness terrain that does not carry a high risk of injury, death, and disappearance. Consequently, we consider the first of this report’s five recommendations to be the most urgent: we call for the immediate end of Prevention Through Deterrence as an enforcement doctrine, as well as the removal of all walls, fencing, barriers, and other border infrastructure that serves to push migration into the deadly backcountry. We will only see the end of the crisis of disappearance with the complete demilitarization of the US–Mexico border. Federal immigration policy must be rewritten to protect human life and human rights, and to address the US-sponsored violence and economic disruption causing so many to seek refuge within these borders.
Until that day comes, the US Border Patrol and its collaborators bear responsibility for the crisis of death and disappearance in the Southwest borderlands.
WHAT IS CHASE? WHAT IS SCATTER?
- Chase is the active period of pursuit of US Border Patrol agents when they attempt to catch or catch up with individuals in order to apprehend them.
- Scatter is when individuals separate from their group due to Border Patrol intervention and disperse into the wilderness. Slower moving people, including the very young, very old, sick, and injured are left behind in the chaos -- alone in the backcountry.
HOW DOES CHASE PUT PEOPLE IN DANGER?
1. Increased Vulnerability to Environmental Hazards
Environmental hazards during pursuit often lead to injury and death. Border Patrol agents chase border crossers through the remote terrain and utilize the landscape as a weapon to slow down, injure, and apprehend people. We show how chases lead to heat exhaustion and dehydration, blisters and sprains, injuries due to falls, and drownings. 40.9 percent of incidents of chase documented by our survey resulted in someone being injured or killed.
2. Escalated Border Patrol Violence during Apprehension
Border Patrol violence is an outcome of chase. US Border Patrol agents regularly assault border crossers at the culmination of a chase. Assault then contributes to a cycle of violence where border crossers flee both from interdiction and from potential serious injury and death. Chase in remote areas commonly results in excessive use of force. In our survey, tackles, beatings, tasers, dog attacks and assault with vehicles were all reportedly employed by the US Border Patrol against border crossers during chase. 18.2 percent of incidents of chase resulted in someone being injured by Border Patrol agents during apprehension.
3. Increased Likelihood of Scatter
Scatter is one of the deadly and traumatic outcomes of chase. The scatter of border crossers causes spatial disorientation, separation from one’s guide and companions, loss of supplies and belongings, and exposure to the hazards of hostile terrain. In the remote wilderness, this directly leads to death and disappearance. 41.5 percent of respondents reported someone in the group becoming lost after being chased by agents.
HOW IS THIS RELATED TO DISAPPEARANCE?
In those cases that explicitly spoke of chase and scatter in the wilderness as the event that caused the person to go missing, 35.7% ended in death or disappearance.
HOW CAN WE MAKE APPREHENSION MORE SAFE?
Based on our research and our on-the-ground observation of border enforcement activities, we assert that there is no policing method for interdicting border crossers in wilderness terrain that will not entail high risk of injury, death and disappearance.
SO THEN WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?
We call for the immediate end of Prevention Through Deterrence as an enforcement doctrine, as well as the removal of all walls, fencing, barriers and other border infrastructure that serve to push migration into the deadly backcountry. We will only see the end of the crisis of disappearance with the complete de-militarization of the US-Mexico border. Federal immigration policy must be rewritten to protect human life and human rights, and to address the US-sponsored violence and economic disruption causing so many to seek refuge within these borders.
Download and print the full report
Part II: Interference with Humanitarian Aid
Death and Disappearance on the US–Mexico Border
“Yes. I saw water bottles stabbed. They break the bottles so you can’t even use them to fill up at the tanks. I needed water, some of the other people in the group needed water, but we found them destroyed. [I felt] helplessness, rage. They [the US Border Patrol] must hate us. It’s their work to capture us, but we are humans. And they don’t treat us like humans. It’s hate is what it is. They break the bottles out of hate.”-Miguel, a 37-year-old from Sinaloa, Mexico, describes crossing the border (Personal Interview. 20 September 2016. Nogales, Sonora)
In Part II of this three-part report we investigate the US Border Patrol’s widespread vandalization of water bottles intended for border crossers. These acts of vandalism--which include slashing, dumping out, and confiscating water bottles--contribute to the disappearance and death of border crossers in the Arizona region of the US-Mexico borderlands. We show that these practices are in line with the agency’s larger enforcement strategy of Prevention Through Deterrence--a policy intended to make crossing both dangerous and deadly.Disappeared Part II: Interference With Humanitarian Aid relies on data collected by No More Deaths humanitarian aid workers from 2012 until 2015. Through geospatial mapping and analysis, as well as interviews and first hand accounts collected from volunteers and border-crossers, we shed light on who is vandalizing humanitarian aid and the impact it has on those crossing.
NEED FOR HUMANITARIAN AID
Over the last two decades, the remains of at least 7,000 people have been recovered from the United States borderlands. (According to US Border Patrol, 6,915 remains of people presumed to be migrants were recovered along the border between FY1998 and FY2016. At least 239 migrant remains have been recovered in 2017 as of July 31, an increase from the same time last year despite drastically lower numbers of apprehensions. (https://missingmigrants.iom.int/migrant-deaths-us-mexico-border) The cause of death in the majority of these cases is exposure to the elements, which include extreme heat and cold, as well as dehydration from lack of access to water. From 2012-2015, No More Deaths distributed over 31,558 gallon jugs of water across the most arid and remote regions of the southern Arizona Desert. Over 86% of this water was used. This high level of water use underscores the urgent need for access to water in the borderlands.
DESTRUCTION OF WATER
Water gallons were vandalized 415 times, or on average more than twice a week, during the three years of recorded data. Overall 3,586 gallons of water were vandalized. We compared vandalism rates across seasons (hunting vs. non-hunting) and land jurisdictions in our attempts to identify who is responsible.
We found that although vandalism of our water-drop sites increased slightly during hunting season--to a vandalism event rate of 9.3%--there remained a baseline vandalism rate of 6.6% during non-hunting season, demonstrating that hunters are not responsible for the majority of the destruction.
A similar analysis of land jurisdictions indicates that there is no statistically significant difference in vandalism among private, federal forest land, and state trust land. Because Border Patrol agents are the only actors with equal access to these land jurisdictions within our study area, we conclude that US Border Patrol agents are the most likely actor responsible for the vandalism of humanitarian aid.
To provide a measurement of the physiological difficulty of crossing the US-Mexico border, we calculated the ruggedness of the landscape and a measurement of the caloric expenditure needed to arrive at one of our water-drop sites on foot.
We find that the average caloric expenditure to arrive at one of the vandalized water-drop sites is 2,390.433 calories, with a range from 41.230 to 5,677.548. (This calculation still assumes a direct and linear route of transit from the international border to the specific water-drop site to which the figure applies, rather than the additional distance traveled to circumnavigate impediments.) This data indicates that water is vandalized in locations where its impact is likely to be lethal—locations where individuals have already experienced considerable physiological stress, based on the terrain and environment they have traversed, and beyond which it will become increasingly difficult for them to reduce this stress.
OBSTRUCTION OF AID
Since the formation of No More Deaths, US Border Patrol agents have harassed volunteers and interfered with their ability to provide life-saving aid in the field. Volunteers report direct harassment from Border Patrol agents in the form of surveillance, detention, and interrogation, as well as the threat of arrest and physical violence. Border Patrol agents have routinely surrounded the medical aid camp, creating an atmosphere of intimidation in a space where injured, ill, and traumatized border crossers come seeking medical aid. This ongoing harassment culminated in June 2017 with a military-style raid carried out on the medical aid camp. Agents arrested four border crossers receiving medical care. This type of behavior disrupts No More Deaths volunteers’ ability to provide humanitarian aid and calls into question the US Border Patrol’s own claims to be humanitarian.
CONCLUSION AND DEMANDS
After analyzing hundreds of recorded acts of vandalism and harassment of humanitarian aid providers, we conclude that these deadly practices cannot be dismissed as the misguided behavior of a few “rogue” agents. Rather, the culture of the US Border Patrol both authorizes and normalizes such acts of cruelty. Consequently, we recommend that US Border Patrol designate the destruction of humanitarian aid supplies and the obstruction of humanitarian aid efforts a fireable offense for US Border Patrol agents. We call for an immediate end to the harassment of humanitarian aid volunteers, as well as the obstruction of humanitarian aid stations, by establishing federal policy guidelines prohibiting the destruction and confiscation of water and other humanitarian aid supplies. We also call upon the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to open inquiries into the US Border Patrol’s obstruction of humanitarian aid efforts. And finally, because we recognize that humanitarian aid ameliorates, but does not solve, the crises caused by militarized borders, we call on Customs and Border Protection to permanently dismantle the US Border Patrol and to establish a reparations program for the families of all persons disappeared or deceased as a result of the US border policy of Prevention Through Deterrence.
IMPORTANCE OF HUMANITARIAN AID
The purpose of humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity after or during human-made crises and natural disasters.
Why does No More Deaths leave water in the desert?
There is a crisis of death and disappearance in the US-Mexico borderlands. Over the last two decades, the remains of at least 7,000 people have been recovered from the United States borderlands. (https://missingmigrants.iom.int/migrant-deaths-us-mexico-border)
Many more have disappeared. The cause of death in the majority of these cases is exposure to the elements and dehydration from lack of access to water. Medical professionals recommend that border crossers drink between 5-12 liters (1.3 - 3.1 gallons) of water daily depending on conditions. (Montain, S. J., Ely, M., Santee, W. R., & Friedl, K. (2010). Water requirements and soldier hydration. Washington, DC: Borden Institute.)
However, because water sources are scarce, border crossers rely on water they can carry, which is rarely more than 7 liters (2 gallons). The entire journey can be anywhere from 3 days to nearly a month. Given the staggering length and ruggedness of the journey, it is physically impossible for anyone attempting to cross the border on foot to carry enough water or food supplies to survive. As a result, hundreds of people die each year in the desert of Pima county alone.
Since 2002, humanitarian-aid volunteers have worked to deliver caches of water and food to the most arid and remote regions of the Southern Arizona desert. From 2012-2015, No More Deaths alone distributed over 31,558 gallon jugs of water to migration trails in the Southern Arizona desert. Over 86% of this water was used. This high level of water use underscores the urgent need for access to water in the borderlands.
How hard is the journey?
The 1994 Border Patrol’s policy of Prevention Through Deterrence bolstered the border with more segments of border wall, more armed agents and checkpoints, and heightened surveillance technology. In Southern Arizona, the effect has been to funnel border crossers into an extremely arid, sparsely populated region with few natural water sources. In the summer months this area of the desert regularly experiences temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Volunteers regularly find gallons vandalized and slashed. The maps above show the ruggedness of the terrain in the Arivaca corridor, and the physiological difficulty of crossing this terrain on foot. We applied these measurements of ruggedness and caloric cost to the water-drop sites that are most consistently vandalized. We find an average caloric expenditure to arrive at each vandalized water-drop site of 2390.433 calories, with a range of caloric cost going to as high as 5677.548 calories. (This calculation again assumes a direct and linear route of transit from the international border to the specific water-drop site to which the figure applies, rather than the additional distance traveled to circumnavigate impediments.)
Through analysis of ruggedness and water vandalization, we observed that water is vandalized in locations where its impact is likely to be lethal– where individuals have already experienced considerable physiological stress, based on the terrain and environment they have traversed.
INTERFERENCE WITH HUMANITARIAN AID
From 2012-2015, No More Deaths alone distributed over 31,558 gallon jugs of water to migration trails in the Southern Arizona desert. Over 86% of this water was used. This high level of water use underscores the urgent need for access to water in the borderlands.
What is vandalism of humanitarian aid?
Volunteers regularly find life-saving water gallons and cans of food vandalized. Water gallons have been found:
In data collected by No More Deaths from 2012 to 2015, volunteers found water gallons vandalized a total of 415 times, or on average at least 2 times a week, during our study period. Overall, 3,586 gallons of water were vandalized in an approximately 800 square mile desert corridor near Arivaca, Arizona. In addition to water gallons, volunteers have repeatedly found other life-saving aid - food and blankets - destroyed in the same manner.
Who is vandalizing humanitarian aid?
Through statistical analysis, video evidence, and personal experience, our team has uncovered a disturbing reality. In the majority of cases, US Border Patrol agents are responsible for the widespread interference with essential humanitarian efforts. “Yes, I remember people smashing and stepping on water bottles, I remember that being imparted onto us in one way or another,” one former Border Patrol agent told us. “I also remember that the logic behind that, the logic that was imparted to us with that action, was that you stomp on their water, and ransack their food cache, in order to expedite their apprehension.” (Anonymous. Personal Interview. 7 February 2017, Tucson, Arizona) This is the logic of the US Border Patrol’s policy of Prevention Through Deterrence, which in theory prioritizes threats of arrest and physical violence, while in reality kills and disappears people.
How else does the border patrol interfere with humanitarian aid?
Volunteers experience direct harassment from Border Patrol in the field and at camp as they attempt to provide aid. Examples of Border Patrol harassment include:
What should we do about it?
Through the findings of this report we conclude that the US Border Patrol’s obstruction of humanitarian-aid efforts is widespread and routine, and that the agency as a whole is guilty of significant human rights violations. We demand that US Customs and Border Protection permanently dismantles the US Border Patrol and establishes a reparations program for the families of all persons disappeared or deceased as a result of the US border policy of Prevention Through Deterrence.
Download and print the full report
Death and Disappearance on the US–Mexico Border
“Yes. I saw water bottles stabbed. They break the bottles so you can’t even use them to fill up at the tanks. I needed water, some of the other people in the group needed water, but we found them destroyed. [I felt] helplessness, rage. They [the US Border Patrol] must hate us. It’s their work to capture us, but we are humans. And they don’t treat us like humans. It’s hate is what it is. They break the bottles out of hate.”-Miguel, a 37-year-old from Sinaloa, Mexico, describes crossing the border (Personal Interview. 20 September 2016. Nogales, Sonora)
In Part II of this three-part report we investigate the US Border Patrol’s widespread vandalization of water bottles intended for border crossers. These acts of vandalism--which include slashing, dumping out, and confiscating water bottles--contribute to the disappearance and death of border crossers in the Arizona region of the US-Mexico borderlands. We show that these practices are in line with the agency’s larger enforcement strategy of Prevention Through Deterrence--a policy intended to make crossing both dangerous and deadly.Disappeared Part II: Interference With Humanitarian Aid relies on data collected by No More Deaths humanitarian aid workers from 2012 until 2015. Through geospatial mapping and analysis, as well as interviews and first hand accounts collected from volunteers and border-crossers, we shed light on who is vandalizing humanitarian aid and the impact it has on those crossing.
NEED FOR HUMANITARIAN AID
Over the last two decades, the remains of at least 7,000 people have been recovered from the United States borderlands. (According to US Border Patrol, 6,915 remains of people presumed to be migrants were recovered along the border between FY1998 and FY2016. At least 239 migrant remains have been recovered in 2017 as of July 31, an increase from the same time last year despite drastically lower numbers of apprehensions. (https://missingmigrants.iom.int/migrant-deaths-us-mexico-border) The cause of death in the majority of these cases is exposure to the elements, which include extreme heat and cold, as well as dehydration from lack of access to water. From 2012-2015, No More Deaths distributed over 31,558 gallon jugs of water across the most arid and remote regions of the southern Arizona Desert. Over 86% of this water was used. This high level of water use underscores the urgent need for access to water in the borderlands.
DESTRUCTION OF WATER
Water gallons were vandalized 415 times, or on average more than twice a week, during the three years of recorded data. Overall 3,586 gallons of water were vandalized. We compared vandalism rates across seasons (hunting vs. non-hunting) and land jurisdictions in our attempts to identify who is responsible.
We found that although vandalism of our water-drop sites increased slightly during hunting season--to a vandalism event rate of 9.3%--there remained a baseline vandalism rate of 6.6% during non-hunting season, demonstrating that hunters are not responsible for the majority of the destruction.
A similar analysis of land jurisdictions indicates that there is no statistically significant difference in vandalism among private, federal forest land, and state trust land. Because Border Patrol agents are the only actors with equal access to these land jurisdictions within our study area, we conclude that US Border Patrol agents are the most likely actor responsible for the vandalism of humanitarian aid.
To provide a measurement of the physiological difficulty of crossing the US-Mexico border, we calculated the ruggedness of the landscape and a measurement of the caloric expenditure needed to arrive at one of our water-drop sites on foot.
We find that the average caloric expenditure to arrive at one of the vandalized water-drop sites is 2,390.433 calories, with a range from 41.230 to 5,677.548. (This calculation still assumes a direct and linear route of transit from the international border to the specific water-drop site to which the figure applies, rather than the additional distance traveled to circumnavigate impediments.) This data indicates that water is vandalized in locations where its impact is likely to be lethal—locations where individuals have already experienced considerable physiological stress, based on the terrain and environment they have traversed, and beyond which it will become increasingly difficult for them to reduce this stress.
OBSTRUCTION OF AID
Since the formation of No More Deaths, US Border Patrol agents have harassed volunteers and interfered with their ability to provide life-saving aid in the field. Volunteers report direct harassment from Border Patrol agents in the form of surveillance, detention, and interrogation, as well as the threat of arrest and physical violence. Border Patrol agents have routinely surrounded the medical aid camp, creating an atmosphere of intimidation in a space where injured, ill, and traumatized border crossers come seeking medical aid. This ongoing harassment culminated in June 2017 with a military-style raid carried out on the medical aid camp. Agents arrested four border crossers receiving medical care. This type of behavior disrupts No More Deaths volunteers’ ability to provide humanitarian aid and calls into question the US Border Patrol’s own claims to be humanitarian.
CONCLUSION AND DEMANDS
After analyzing hundreds of recorded acts of vandalism and harassment of humanitarian aid providers, we conclude that these deadly practices cannot be dismissed as the misguided behavior of a few “rogue” agents. Rather, the culture of the US Border Patrol both authorizes and normalizes such acts of cruelty. Consequently, we recommend that US Border Patrol designate the destruction of humanitarian aid supplies and the obstruction of humanitarian aid efforts a fireable offense for US Border Patrol agents. We call for an immediate end to the harassment of humanitarian aid volunteers, as well as the obstruction of humanitarian aid stations, by establishing federal policy guidelines prohibiting the destruction and confiscation of water and other humanitarian aid supplies. We also call upon the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to open inquiries into the US Border Patrol’s obstruction of humanitarian aid efforts. And finally, because we recognize that humanitarian aid ameliorates, but does not solve, the crises caused by militarized borders, we call on Customs and Border Protection to permanently dismantle the US Border Patrol and to establish a reparations program for the families of all persons disappeared or deceased as a result of the US border policy of Prevention Through Deterrence.
IMPORTANCE OF HUMANITARIAN AID
The purpose of humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity after or during human-made crises and natural disasters.
Why does No More Deaths leave water in the desert?
There is a crisis of death and disappearance in the US-Mexico borderlands. Over the last two decades, the remains of at least 7,000 people have been recovered from the United States borderlands. (https://missingmigrants.iom.int/migrant-deaths-us-mexico-border)
Many more have disappeared. The cause of death in the majority of these cases is exposure to the elements and dehydration from lack of access to water. Medical professionals recommend that border crossers drink between 5-12 liters (1.3 - 3.1 gallons) of water daily depending on conditions. (Montain, S. J., Ely, M., Santee, W. R., & Friedl, K. (2010). Water requirements and soldier hydration. Washington, DC: Borden Institute.)
However, because water sources are scarce, border crossers rely on water they can carry, which is rarely more than 7 liters (2 gallons). The entire journey can be anywhere from 3 days to nearly a month. Given the staggering length and ruggedness of the journey, it is physically impossible for anyone attempting to cross the border on foot to carry enough water or food supplies to survive. As a result, hundreds of people die each year in the desert of Pima county alone.
Since 2002, humanitarian-aid volunteers have worked to deliver caches of water and food to the most arid and remote regions of the Southern Arizona desert. From 2012-2015, No More Deaths alone distributed over 31,558 gallon jugs of water to migration trails in the Southern Arizona desert. Over 86% of this water was used. This high level of water use underscores the urgent need for access to water in the borderlands.
How hard is the journey?
The 1994 Border Patrol’s policy of Prevention Through Deterrence bolstered the border with more segments of border wall, more armed agents and checkpoints, and heightened surveillance technology. In Southern Arizona, the effect has been to funnel border crossers into an extremely arid, sparsely populated region with few natural water sources. In the summer months this area of the desert regularly experiences temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Volunteers regularly find gallons vandalized and slashed. The maps above show the ruggedness of the terrain in the Arivaca corridor, and the physiological difficulty of crossing this terrain on foot. We applied these measurements of ruggedness and caloric cost to the water-drop sites that are most consistently vandalized. We find an average caloric expenditure to arrive at each vandalized water-drop site of 2390.433 calories, with a range of caloric cost going to as high as 5677.548 calories. (This calculation again assumes a direct and linear route of transit from the international border to the specific water-drop site to which the figure applies, rather than the additional distance traveled to circumnavigate impediments.)
Through analysis of ruggedness and water vandalization, we observed that water is vandalized in locations where its impact is likely to be lethal– where individuals have already experienced considerable physiological stress, based on the terrain and environment they have traversed.
INTERFERENCE WITH HUMANITARIAN AID
From 2012-2015, No More Deaths alone distributed over 31,558 gallon jugs of water to migration trails in the Southern Arizona desert. Over 86% of this water was used. This high level of water use underscores the urgent need for access to water in the borderlands.
What is vandalism of humanitarian aid?
Volunteers regularly find life-saving water gallons and cans of food vandalized. Water gallons have been found:
- Slashed with knives
- Dumped out
- Stomped on
- Dyed or tampered with
In data collected by No More Deaths from 2012 to 2015, volunteers found water gallons vandalized a total of 415 times, or on average at least 2 times a week, during our study period. Overall, 3,586 gallons of water were vandalized in an approximately 800 square mile desert corridor near Arivaca, Arizona. In addition to water gallons, volunteers have repeatedly found other life-saving aid - food and blankets - destroyed in the same manner.
Who is vandalizing humanitarian aid?
Through statistical analysis, video evidence, and personal experience, our team has uncovered a disturbing reality. In the majority of cases, US Border Patrol agents are responsible for the widespread interference with essential humanitarian efforts. “Yes, I remember people smashing and stepping on water bottles, I remember that being imparted onto us in one way or another,” one former Border Patrol agent told us. “I also remember that the logic behind that, the logic that was imparted to us with that action, was that you stomp on their water, and ransack their food cache, in order to expedite their apprehension.” (Anonymous. Personal Interview. 7 February 2017, Tucson, Arizona) This is the logic of the US Border Patrol’s policy of Prevention Through Deterrence, which in theory prioritizes threats of arrest and physical violence, while in reality kills and disappears people.
How else does the border patrol interfere with humanitarian aid?
Volunteers experience direct harassment from Border Patrol in the field and at camp as they attempt to provide aid. Examples of Border Patrol harassment include:
- Threat of physical violence and arrest
- Aggressive interrogation
- Suggestion that volunteers are smugglers or cartel members
- Detention
- Brandishment of firearms
- Forcing volunteers’ vehicles off the road with trucks
- Surveillance with low-flying helicopters
- Following volunteers in the field with helicopters, trucks, on horseback, and on foot
What should we do about it?
Through the findings of this report we conclude that the US Border Patrol’s obstruction of humanitarian-aid efforts is widespread and routine, and that the agency as a whole is guilty of significant human rights violations. We demand that US Customs and Border Protection permanently dismantles the US Border Patrol and establishes a reparations program for the families of all persons disappeared or deceased as a result of the US border policy of Prevention Through Deterrence.
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