Harsh desert terrain on US-Mexico border being used ‘as a weapon’ to deter migrants, according to campaigners

The death of a seven-year-old Guatemalan girl in the custody of US Customs and Border Protection is further evidence of how the harsh desert terrain along the south-western border is used “as a weapon” to deter migrants, according to a humanitarian non-profit, No More Deaths.

The organization, which provides aid to migrants crossing the border, believes US border patrol practices “prevention through deterrence” – closing off border access in safer urban centers in states like California and Texas so that those looking to cross the border go through rough terrain, where dehydration is likely and death a possibility.

“Crossing from the US border in any location, there’s no physical way as a human being to carry the kind of water you’ll need to survive those conditions for three, four days of walking,” said Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler, a spokeswoman for No More Deaths, a ministry of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson, Arizona.

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A 2016 report produced by the group has accused US authorities of utilizing “… the landscape as a weapon to slow down, injure, and apprehend [migrants]”.

The girl, identified as Jakelin Caal Maquin, died less than two days after her father turned himself and his daughter in to CBP on the night of 6 December. The girl and her father, both from Guatemala, were traveling in a group of 163 people. The girl died from dehydration and shock, and “reportedly had not eaten or consumed water for several days”, CBP said in a statement to the Washington Post.

The Department of Homeland Security maintains that border patrol agents did everything they could to save the girl, especially given her dangerous journey through the desert.

“We cannot stress enough the dangers posed by traveling long distances, in crowded transportation, or in the natural elements through remote desert areas without food, water and other supplies. No one should risk injury, or even death, by crossing our border unlawfully,” said the CBP commissioner, Kevin McAleenan, in a statement.

The Department of Homeland Security will be conducting an investigation into the incident.

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Despite the harrowing conditions, thousands of migrants cross these remote deserts to enter the United States. Some don’t make it – a USA Today investigation found that more than 7,000 people have died while trying to cross the south-western border illegally, and more could be unaccounted for.

A small group of non-profits like No More Deaths provide emergency services to migrants crossing the border, including placing food and jugs of water along routes commonly taken by migrants.

The effort is necessary given the circumstances people put themselves in to enter the United States, Orlovsky-Schnitzler said.

“Every parent’s instinct is to protect and take care of their child, and they would not take them into those circumstances if they did not feel it was absolutely necessary. We can only wonder what brought them to migrate in the first place,” Orlovsky-Schnitzler said.

Two reports released by No More Deaths and volunteers from another migrants’ civil rights group, La Coalición de Derechos Humanos, published in 2016 and 2017, have detailed efforts US border patrol agents have taken to deliberately make the desert terrain more dangerous, including destroying water jugs left for border crossers. In the group’s 2017 report, it said that volunteers have found water jugs vandalized 415 times, affecting 3,586 gallons. The report also said border patrol agents have vandalized food and blankets in addition to harassing volunteers in the field.

A border patrol spokesperson told the Guardian in January that the agency does not condone the behavior. “We don’t want to see anyone out there die. We have to do our enforcement job and we do it as humanely as possible. We want to save lives.”

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While border patrol aid interference with its food and water caches has happened for many years, No More Deaths is now seeing an escalation in crackdowns against its volunteers under the Trump administration.

Eight activists with the organization were charged with federal crimes in January for trespassing and abandoning property, the latter a reference to the water jugs, food and other supplies left by volunteers. One volunteer faces a conspiracy charge for harboring two undocumented immigrants, and could face 20 years in prison. The organization says the trials for the volunteers are set for next year.

Nevertheless, Orlovsky-Schnitzler says No More Deaths remains committed to providing aid to border crossers.

“Our mission plain and simple is ending death and suffering, and it looks different in every situation, but we’re not going away.”

