Over the last two summers, Laura Mae Williams from the New Mexico Medical Investigator’s Office has had to recover bodies in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands multiple times a week. The number of bodies recovered in the desert just west of El Paso has increased significantly over the years, with 121 sets of remains found so far this year, a thirteenfold increase from five years ago. Most of the deaths are heat-related, as the desert can reach extreme temperatures in the summer. This spike in deaths is largely attributed to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, which pushed smuggling routes into more remote and dangerous areas in New Mexico. First responders, elected officials, and advocates in New Mexico are concerned about the increase in deaths and blame both the state and federal government, as well as smugglers who often abandon migrants in perilous conditions. The New Mexico Medical Investigator’s Office marks these deaths as accidental, but questions why leaving someone to die in the desert is not considered homicide by neglect. The situation highlights the dangers and risks faced by migrants attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border in search of a better life.
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