EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – The last fiscal year was the deadliest on record in the El Paso area when it comes to migrants dying while crossing illegally into the United States.
A total of 176 lives were lost in El Paso canals, the mountains and desert of New Mexico, and in roadways used by smugglers driving erratically and at high speeds with clients cramped in the back seats. That happened between Oct. 1, 2023, and Sept. 30, 2024.
Since then, another 23 migrants have perished in this Far West Texas/Southern New Mexico region. That is prompting federal authorities to once again urge would-be migrants to think twice before risking their lives coming to the U.S. illegally.
“We’re not talking about deaths from the heat; we’re talking about factors such as the cold – hypothermia – the water canals (and) multiple different situations the migrants might face,” said Claudio Herrera-Baeza, a spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol. “Even when you jump inside a vehicle, a small sedan full of 10 individuals, it can be really dangerous.”
El Paso area migrant advocacy organizations for years have been lobbying in favor of expanded legal migration options so that individuals in search of the American dream don’t resort to smugglers.
Migrant surrenders at the border have decreased since the Biden administration clamped down on unscheduled asylum claims between ports of entry last June. Border agents have apprehended only 110,138 foreign nationals along the Southwest border this October and November, compared to 379,855 in October and November 2023.
Border agents attribute most of the recent traffic to organized smuggling activity. Just last Sunday, the Border Patrol stopped a tractor-trailer with 37 concealed unauthorized migrants at a checkpoint north of Las Cruces, N.M.
Across the border in Juarez, Mexico, migrant arrivals are on the rise this week.
Kleiber Chacon was part of a group that tried to surrender to U.S. authorities at the border wall in El Paso. He says Texas National Guard troops turned him back. His hands show cuts from trying to hold on to a razor wire barrier while pleading his case., then getting stuck.
“The Guard told us to go back. ‘Stop!’ and all that. They started to shoot their gas (pellets) to scare us, and in that rush, I got the wounds on my hands from the wire. I became tangled. I could not get free,” Chacon said.
The Venezuelan national said he was aware of the many dangers he would face when he decided to try to join family members already in the United States. He said he had faced many dangers during his travels through South America, Panama, and Mexico and that nothing would stop him.
“We are still here; we will try it again today,” he said during an interview on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande on Thursday. “The intent remains the same. We have a purpose; we have a dream. Our family is waiting for us […] I think (for that), for our families, anybody can do anything.”
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