Finding themselves with few options under Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, more families are making the potentially-deadly journey across the Sonoran desert.
Under the current administration, activists fear the death toll will only rise. buzzfeednews.com/article/johnst…
Under the current administration, activists fear the death toll will only rise. buzzfeednews.com/article/johnst…
The Central American immigrants who journey to Pueblo Sin Fronteras at the Arizona-Mexico border have heard of the hundreds of bodies found in the desert by aid workers.
But still they arrive, “expecting an opportunity to cross here that may not exist elsewhere.”
But still they arrive, “expecting an opportunity to cross here that may not exist elsewhere.”
Once a way station for immigrants working their way to other border crossings, this tiny cartel stronghold has become a major jumping-off point for immigrants desperate enough to brave the dangers of the Sonoran Desert.
There are no turnstiles in the desert, so it’s impossible to know exactly how many people try to cross in this region each year. But if Border Patrol arrest numbers are any indication, it’s gone from a trickle to a flood.
Arrests of families along the entire Arizona border increased 119% between October 2016 and June 2017. At the same time, arrests fell 6% at the San Diego border sector, and even more at several Texas border sectors.
Human rights activists believe the influx of immigrant families crossing the border is due to successive immigration crackdowns; Obama’s raids in 2016, and Trump’s current “zero tolerance” policy that has made crossing at safer entry points or seeking asylum virtually impossible.
While families have been crossing and dying in the desert for years, Trump’s immigration policies have prompted difficult decisions. Faced with family separation and a delayed asylum process, immigrants are finding increasingly dangerous way to cross the border.
“We think what’s most commonly happening … is people arrive at the port, realize the line situation, and they don’t even get into the line,” one activist said. Instead, they go into the desert and attempt to cross the border illegally: “It’s the logical thing to do.”
But it’s also an incredibly dangerous one. Migrations “lanes” are controlled by cartels, and families with no money to pay are often made to carry drugs as payment, or used as decoys to distract Border Patrol agents.
Even those who aren’t used as mules or pawns by the cartels face immense dangers in the open desert, where a broken ankle can be a death sentence: “The death toll is going up.” buzzfeednews.com/article/johnst…
