Record 165 migrants killed on Chihuahua border with US in 2024

A record 165 migrants have died so far this year on the border of Chihuahua, a state in northern Mexico, with Texas and New Mexico in the United States, which already exceeds the 149 for all of 2023, activists warned at the Permanent Seminar on Human Mobility, organized by the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Mexico.

The 10 percent increase reflects the extreme and dangerous conditions faced by migrants trying to cross into the United States, said Alejandra Corona, JRS coordinator in Ciudad Juarez, the main border city in this area, at this weekend’s seminar.

“The records of encounters of migrants in the El Paso region (Texas) on their way to the United States continue to be very high, so this really causes us concern,” Corona said.

Authorities have expressed concern about the situation, citing extreme heat and lack of water as key factors in the rise in deaths.

Some officials also acknowledge that the militarization of the U.S. border and more restrictive policies are forcing migrants to take increasingly dangerous routes.

“It is worrying, because it is a life, because it is the population to which we owe ourselves, it is our target population,” said Dirvin Luis García, head of the Migrant Care Division of the State Population Council in Chihuahua.

Another critical factor is the intensification of security measures at the border, especially in Texas, with a greater deployment of military forces and border patrols that push migrants to less guarded but more deadly routes due to their remoteness and the harsh conditions of the terrain.

“This mobility trend towards this containment policy is leading to the opening of alternative routes that are often less safe for traffic,” commented the SJR coordinator.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) declared the border between Mexico and the United States last September as “the most dangerous land migration route in the world,” with more than 686 migrants dead or missing along its 3,000 kilometers in 2022.

Although the Mexican government reports a drop of more than 70% since December in daily arrests at the border with the United States, irregular migration through Mexico rose 193% year-on-year in the first half of the year to more than 712,000, according to the Migration Policy Unit.

Ciudad Juarez / EFE