As Migration Routes Shift Toward New Mexico, so does Death
High Country News, 21 December 2023
“Though just a few miles — or less — lie between the border and the roads where migrants can be picked up, the terrain is rough. Its openness is disorienting, the sandy soil is hard to walk through, and the topography varies. Those who want to avoid the border wall must traverse Mount Cristo Rey, where there is a gap. ‘I didn’t understand why they were dying until I started going out there on the (ATV) — I was getting lost,’ said García, who has lived in Sunland Park his whole life.
Others die after falling from the wall, or from a combination of injuries and exposure. CT scans conducted by OMI reveal fibula and foot fractures in remains recovered from within a mile of the wall.
‘Maybe the dehydration is survivable. Maybe the lack of food is survivable. Maybe the broken ankle is survivable,’ said Heather Edgar, OMI’s forensic anthropologist. ‘But when you put them all together and you're disoriented and you're lost. … It’s not survivable.’”
High Country News, 21 December 2023
“Though just a few miles — or less — lie between the border and the roads where migrants can be picked up, the terrain is rough. Its openness is disorienting, the sandy soil is hard to walk through, and the topography varies. Those who want to avoid the border wall must traverse Mount Cristo Rey, where there is a gap. ‘I didn’t understand why they were dying until I started going out there on the (ATV) — I was getting lost,’ said García, who has lived in Sunland Park his whole life.
Others die after falling from the wall, or from a combination of injuries and exposure. CT scans conducted by OMI reveal fibula and foot fractures in remains recovered from within a mile of the wall.
‘Maybe the dehydration is survivable. Maybe the lack of food is survivable. Maybe the broken ankle is survivable,’ said Heather Edgar, OMI’s forensic anthropologist. ‘But when you put them all together and you're disoriented and you're lost. … It’s not survivable.’”
Paul Ratje/AFP via Getty Images