Death at the border

Debates about United States border control policies have generally ignored the human costs of undocumented migration. We focus attention on these cost s by estimating the number, causes and location of migrant deaths at the so uthwest border of the United States between 1993 and 1997. We document more than 1,600 possible migrant fatalities along the border in this period. Mo re than 1,000 of these deaths were reported by United States data sources, and the remainder were Rio Grande drowning deaths reported by Mexican sourc es. Additional deaths may go unrecorded because the bodies of the decedents do not come to the attention of government officials. Deaths From hyperthe rmia, hypothermia and dehydration increased sharply from 1993 to 1997 as in tensified border enforcement redirected undocumented migration flows from u rban crossing points to more remote crossing areas where the migrants are e xposed to a greater risk of death.