Browsing by Subject "Border Patrol’s"

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Migrant Death Prevention and the Border Patrol’s Missing Migrant Program
(LBJ School of Public Affairs, 2024-04) Leutert, Stephanie
For more than a century, migrants have died in South Texas while attempting to enter the United States. These deaths began in the late 1800s after the U.S. Congress passed its first restrictive immigration policies. At the time, some migrants responded to these restrictions by taking clandestine routes to enter the country. Over the following decades, restrictive immigration policies and enforcement efforts have continued to push migrants onto remote and dangerous pathways, with hundreds of migrants dying along the U.S.-Mexico border each year. In South Texas, most migrant deaths occur from three main risks: exposure to the elements, drowning in the Rio Grande, and vehicle accidents. From 2000 to 2022, the Border Patrol recorded nearly 4,000 migrant deaths in South Texas. The majority of these deaths were from heat-related conditions—such as hyperthermia and dehydration—from migrants circumventing Border Patrol checkpoints on foot. The second most common cause of death was drowning in the Rio Grande, from migrants attempting to swim, wade, or float across the river on boats, rafts, and inner tubes. While the third most common cause of death was vehicle-related, with migrants dying in car crashes and suffocating in concealed spaces. Since the 1980s, the Border Patrol has recognized migrant deaths along the U.S.-Mexico border and launched various death prevention activities. In 2017, the Border Patrol began its most recent border-wide initiative: the Missing Migrant Program. This initiative aims to prevent migrant deaths, locate migrants in distress, and identify and return migrant remains to their loved ones. As part of its death prevention efforts, the Missing Migrant Program places rescue beacons and 911 placards in remote areas, along with water rescue placards near the Rio Grande. However, the Missing Migrant Program’s death prevention activities face multiple challenges that limit their effectiveness. These challenges include migrants’ hesitation to seek medical help from the Border Patrol, migrants’ inability to utilize rescue beacons and 911 placards, and the Border Patrol’s varied rescue response for a migrant in distress. This report focuses on migrant deaths in South Texas and the Missing Migrant Program’s death prevention activities. It is divided into four chapters. The first chapter provides a historical overview of U.S. immigration policy, border enforcement efforts, and migrant deaths in South Texas. The second chapter analyzes current migrant death dynamics in South Texas. The third chapter examines the Border Patrol’s response to migrant deaths, with a focus on the Missing Migrant Program’s death prevention activities. Finally, the fourth chapter offers recommendations on how the Missing Migrant Program could reduce migrant deaths along the U.S.-Mexico border.