EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) — Volunteers and migrant advocates gathered Monday in Eagle Pass, Texas, to honor hundreds of people who have died while trying to reach the U.S.
It’s a monthly gathering hosted by Border Vigil of Eagle Pass, whose goal is to create a space of healing, remembrance, and solidarity for the families and communities affected by what they call the militarization of the border and inhumane immigration policies.
The group also aims to raise awareness about the root causes and consequences of migration, while advocating for humane and compassionate approaches to border safety and immigration policy.
In this week’s episode of Border Report Live, correspondent Sandra Sanchez and host Rudy Mireles speak with guest Amerika Garcia-Grewal, a co-founder of the Eagle Pass Border Coalition, of which the Border Vigil is a program.
The vigils are held at Shelby Park, which the state partially closed to the public to make it the Eagle Pass staging point for Operation Lone Star, the state’s border security initiative. The 47-acre park has quietly been reopened for public use as state and national forces have withdrawn.
In January, the group covered a field in Eagle Pass with 600 wooden crosses, each representing a migrant who died while trying to cross the border last year. Many of the crosses had blue or pink marks indicating the young boys and girls who died.
Related content
- Eagle Pass park reopens more than a year after the state seized it for border security
- Migrant dies in San Antonio hospital after falling ill in desolate area near border
- Documentary film on missing migrants to be screened in several Texas cities
- Migrant advocates holding vigils in Mexico and Eagle Pass, Texas
- Migrant advocacy group ‘Witness at the Border’ plans two-week vigil in Eagle Pass
Grewal’s organization also works extensively with Texas State University’s Operation Identification, which aims to identify the remains of migrants who have died on their journey to the U.S. in hopes of notifying their families. The group trains volunteers to fingerprint and identify remains found along the border in Maverick County, Texas.
Operation Identification is led by Dr. Kate Spradlin, an anthropology professor at Texas State University.
According to the Operation Identification website, the surge in immigration also led to a high volume of deaths. Due to a lack of resources, counties became overwhelmed and began burying the migrants without proper analysis or collection of DNA samples and without documenting the location of burial.
That leaves “little chance that these individuals will ever be returned to their families. In turn, families are left without knowing what happened.”
During a recent visit to Eagle Pass, Border Report spent the day with a forensics team from Texas State who exhumed dozens of bodies to help identify them. They take pictures of the clothing, shoes and tattoos, among other things, in hopes that someone might be able to recognize and for families to find some sense of closure.
The next Border Vigil is scheduled for sunset on Aug. 4.
Join the award-winning Border Report team at 2:30 p.m. CDT Monday-Friday at borderreport.com for a weekly, live, in-depth discussion about people living, working and migrating along the U.S.-Mexico border.
You can also watch past episodes of the Border Report Live, highlighting not only immigration and border security, but cartel violence in Mexico, border trade, politics and the U.S. and Mexico’s ongoing water dispute on the border.
Follow Border Report on Facebook and X. You can also sign up for our free daily newsletter and desktop alerts, here.
Read: Read More