Thread by @TexasTribune

1/ There’s been a rash of migrant deaths on the border this month.

Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his daughter Valeria weren’t the only ones.

The Missing Migrants Project has recorded 29 deaths in June on the Texas side of the Rio Grande.

bit.ly/2XhjKWv

2/ On Wednesday, agents discovered the body of a 19-year-old Mexican citizen in an El Paso-area canal.

His name was Natividad Quinto Crisostomo.

He is the ninth person to drown in an El Paso-area canal this month. 11 drowned in all of 2018.

bit.ly/2XhjKWv

3/ The bodies of a woman and three children were found Sunday in Anzalduas Park, which hugs a curve of the Rio Grande.

Two of the children were infants. One was a toddler.

It appeared they died from dehydration and heat exposure.

bit.ly/2XhjKWv

4/ These deaths are part of a recent spike in migrants deaths along the Texas-Mexico border. bit.ly/2XhjKWv

5/ The deaths include a man and a preschool-aged girl whose bodies were found in El Paso's Lower Valley.

Two bodies on different days in a canal. Three men in a water tunnel. The body of a man in the Upper Valley.

We don’t know their names.

bit.ly/2XhjKWv

6/ It is worth exploring why these migrants are journeying to the United States despite the risks.

Simply put: Many migrants view it as more dangerous to stay home.

7/ This is a topic we have relentlessly reported on. In 2016, we introduced you to Geremias Gomez, a migrant from El Salvador. He told us: “I would rather leave alive than wait until they bury me.” bit.ly/2CQj3oD

8/ El Salvador has been called “the murder capital of the world,” and it’s easy to see why. bit.ly/2D6yBIc

9/ While on a reporting trip, we once visited a morgue in El Salvador.

They told us then they were running out of room. bit.ly/2CUCNHF

10/ At the time, this was because a bloody gang conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives and sparked a years-long exodus from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. bit.ly/2CVTFOA

11/ Araceli Amaya, a migrant, told us she watched gang members murder her brother.

"They killed my brother right in front of us. They killed him because he didn’t want to be a gang member." bit.ly/2CVTFOA

12/ We met Jorge Beltran, a newspaper editor from El Salvador who had to move his own family to keep them safe from gang violence.

“The fact that I talked to the police about him — that was like a death sentence on me. The guy already wanted to kill me.”

bit.ly/2CURPgC

13/ These migrants aren’t just suffering threats back home.

The journey itself is full of dangers.

This father and daughter endured last year’s border crisis while spending thousands and risking their lives to journey from Honduras to the U.S.

bit.ly/2ETV2QZ

14/ To understand why Heyli and her father, Carlos, came to the United States, we have to go back to the beginning.

Back to San Francisco de la Paz in Honduras. bit.ly/2ETV2QZ

15/ Here, Carlos can barely make enough to care for his wife and daughter, let alone help his parents buy medicine for a range of ailments.

Meanwhile, street violence has made Honduras a global murder capital.

bit.ly/2ETV2QZ

16/ To escape, many migrants turn to coyotes — smugglers — to help them navigate the long trek north while avoiding immigration officials and journeying through cartel territory.

Smugglers are cheaper to hire if you bring your kid. bit.ly/2ETV2QZ

17/ Here are one smuggler's prices:
+ $10,000 for an adult driven to Houston
+ $7,500 for an adult to reach Houston, with a walking detour
+ $6,000 for a parent & child who get dropped off on the U.S. riverbank, where they immediately seek asylum
bit.ly/2ETV2QZ

18/ Why is it cheaper if you bring your kid?

It drastically reduces the cost and hassle of reaching the U.S. interior. bit.ly/2ETV2QZ

19/ Even with the discounted price, Carlos didn’t have the money to go.

So, the smuggler offered to take them on credit, collateralized with land from a relative. bit.ly/2ETV2QZ

20/ This is a lucrative business.

The cartel relies on human smuggling to make up for the loss of drug profits.

Migrant smuggling generated billions of dollars of returns worldwide in 2016 — with a majority of that happening in North America. bit.ly/2ETV2QZ

21/ One smuggler estimated he makes $700 to $800 a head, or about $2,000 to $3,000 every two weeks — a small fortune in Central America. bit.ly/2ETV2QZ

22/ For Heyli and Carlos, it was a long journey north.

First, they traveled freely through Guatemala to La Técnica, where as many as 300 migrants a day pass through.

It is a one-industry town — and its industry is migration. bit.ly/2ETV2QZ

23/ Heyli and Carlos took a motor boat from La Técnica to the Mexican side, where they slipped into a private car.

The next day, they were in a two-story stash house where mattresses covered every inch of the floor. bit.ly/2ETV2QZ

24/ Then they boarded a tractor trailer that went from stash house to stash house, picking up dozens of other migrants. bit.ly/2ETV2QZ

25/ Eventually, they ended up in Reynosa, Tamaulipas — a border city where Heyli and Carlos were effectively held hostage and not allowed to cross into the United States until they paid about a $3,000 “fee” to the Gulf Cartel. bit.ly/2ETV2QZ

26/ So back home, Carlos’ family borrowed money from a loan shark and put up their house as collateral.

Only then was Carlos allowed to enter the United States with his daughter.

Then they were separated. It took them months to be reunited.

bit.ly/2ETV2QZ

27/27 June has been a deadly month for migrants crossing the border into Texas.

This journey is dangerous. But for many of these migrants, so is home.

Read more here: bit.ly/2LwytWa