Immigrant deaths rise sharply along Texas border

Border missing people remains are buried at Falfurrias Sacred Heart Cemetery in Brooks County, Texas near the border of Mexico. Border missing people remains are buried at Falfurrias Sacred Heart Cemetery in Brooks County, Texas near the border of Mexico. Photo: Olivia P. Tallet Photo: Olivia P. Tallet Image 1 of / 63 Caption Close Immigrant deaths rise sharply along Texas border 1 / 63 Back to Gallery

Though fewer immigrants tried to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally last year, more of them died along the way, particularly in Texas where heavy rains and flooding may have exacerbated the dangers, according to a new report.

The number of immigrants who died along the Texas border increased by 26 percent, the sharpest rise in the nation along the southern border, according to the report from the International Organization for Migration's Missing Migrants Project, a United Nations agency.

The organization said that Texas is a "particular area of concern," with 191 deaths last year compared to 151 in 2016. Nationwide, 412 immigrant deaths were recorded in 2017 along the border between the two nations, up from 398 in 2016 — an increase of 3 percent.

"The increase in deaths is especially concerning, as the available data indicate that far fewer migrants entered the U.S. via its border with Mexico in the last year," said Frank Laczko, director of IOM's Global Migration Data Analysis Centre.

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The Border Patrol reported a 40 percent drop in border apprehension during the 2017 fiscal year from October 2016 to September 2017. The reduction has been loosely attributed to fewer people attempting to cross illegally as a result of President Donald Trump's administration's harsh rhetoric and policies on immigration.

The reduction in apprehensions "undeniably prove the effectiveness of President Trump's commitment to securing our borders," Department of Homeland Security Acting Press Secretary Tyler Q. Houlton said in January.

Deaths of immigrants crossing the border, however, tend to increase when more immigrants are coming, said Nestor Rodríguez, a professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin who has researched southern border crossings.

"It's a matter of volume of crossings," Rodríguez said. "The second most influential factor that tends to impact the number of deaths is the weather or the paths immigrants chose to take."

The IOM report didn't provide an explanation for the increase of deaths across the U.S.-Mexican border, but it suggested that one reason for the surge in Texas may have been from weather and heavy rainfall in 2017 "which made crossing the border... more difficult as the Rio Grande flowed faster and deeper."

Hurricane Harvey came ashore in South Texas near Corpus Christi in August 2017, dumping feet of rain in some areas and flooding waterways.

Julia Black, coordinator for the Missing Migrants Project, said Friday that drownings rose sharply in 2017, from 67 in 2016 to 91. Most of the drowning deaths occurred in the Rio Grande on the border with Texas, she said.

Some experts, however, suggested that a better explanation for the increase in deaths could be related to immigrants undertaking higher levels of risk.

"I saw an increase of people coming around the time of Harvey," said Eddy Canales, director of the South Texas Human Right Center, a nonprofit organization that works to reduce deaths on the Texas-Mexico border.

The center is located in Brooks County, north of McAllen, and is crossed by U.S. Highway 281, one of the central arteries for illegal crossings in the state. The organization patrols and maintain stations of drinking water for immigrants around the Rio Grande Valley to prevent death by dehydration and exhaustion.

Canales said he and volunteers saw more people coming to find work after Harvey struck the state. A shortage of construction and other workers was widely reported after the storm.

"They knew that Harvey would create more demand for work, and they were willing to take a higher risk for a higher payoff," he said.

The underlying problem, Canales said, are the U.S. immigration policies, which focus on enforcement but don't provide for an immigrant labor force to meet demands.

"The report shows what happens when policies push people to more dangerous areas and situations," he said.

The IOM report also suggests that, in general, as the likelihood of arrest grows, migrants tend to seek out more remote — and more dangerous — routes to avoid apprehension.

In Houston, the Mexican Consulate has not experienced a spike in calls from families looking for help in finding or repatriating immigrants crossing the border on their way to the city, said Yury Imanol De la Flor Patiño, consul of protection and legal issues at the local consular office.

The actual number of immigrants who die crossing the border is impossible to know. Many are never found and families frequently don't know how or where to inquire when a loved one disappears.

"This is complicated by the fact that identification is often very difficult for migrant bodies recovered on the border," said Black, the coordinator for the Missing Migrants Project. "Their bodies may not be found for weeks, months, or even years, meaning that it is impossible to determine things like age and gender, let alone identify the individual."

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It took many years for the family of Adalberto Chávez to find his remains after he disappeared crossing the border on his way to Houston in 2008. His mother, Maria, last heard from him when he called from an unknown point at the border.

"Everything is fine, mom. Don't worry," he said.

Chávez body was identified in 2015 after being found at a mass grave in Falfurrias, a city in Brooks County.

His niece, Karen Olvera, said losing a loved one brings a lot of suffering to families.

"It's horrible to lose someone in this way for years without knowing anything and feeling the frustration without having the power to do anything," Olvera said. "The border is so huge that it's like trying to find a needle in a forest."

olivia.tallet@chron.com

Twitter: @oliviaptallet