Since the year 2000, the Pima County Medical Examiner has received nearly 4,000 sets of human remains from people who died crossing the U.S.-Mexico border into Arizona. Here, a cross marking the place where a man in his 30s died in 2009 lays a few hundred yards from one of the water stations the nonprofit Humane Borders sets out for migrants crossing the desert.
Nearly a quarter of the remains identified so far in 2024 were female, the highest percentage in over 20 years compared to male remains.
Through October, 136 sets of human remains were recovered in the Arizona borderlands this year. 24 were identified as female, 87 male and 25 were undetermined.
The Arizona borderlands remain one of the most deadly stretches of the U.S.-Mexico border due to extreme heat, rough terrain, and enforcement measures that push people into more remote areas to avoid detection.
While the Tucson Sector used to see primarily younger men crossing the border, the number of women and families has increased in recent years as more people migrate due to increasing levels of violence, natural disasters, and economic and political instability worldwide.
I’m DK, AZPM News.
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