(NewsNation) — Migrant deaths are on the rise at the southern border as people attempting to enter the U.S. increasingly travel through remote areas already facing high summer temperatures.
Tucson Sector Chief Patrol Agent John Modlin says officials are already seeing the highest number of encounters along the border and expect it to get worse.
“Nothing changes with the level of migration, and we get the 118-to-120-degree days down there. We’re likely going to see unprecedented amounts of death in the desert,” Modlin said.
Representatives from the Tucson Sector Border Patrol area, the Tucson Air and Marine branch of Homeland Security, along with officials from Mexico and Guatemala, recently held a safety event to discuss the risks migrants are taking.
In 2022, Customs and Border Protection documented over 171 deaths across different types of incidents. Distress incidents accounted for 55 cases, with 30 of them occurring at ports of entry.
This report underscores the significance of distress-related incidents, defined as cases where individuals are discovered in medical distress and ultimately succumb to natural causes either in the field, en route to a hospital, during initial lifesaving efforts or after hospital admission.
In the past two days, Terrell County, Texas, has received three 911 distress calls, including one from a woman who was abandoned by the group she was traveling with.
The woman called 911 after she and her husband were left behind because she injured herself and wasn’t able to walk, according to Terrell County Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland. The county sheriff’s dispatchers coordinated her rescue and got her to safety, but not everyone gets that lucky.
Border agents and local law enforcement say they are being overrun with 911 calls from migrants who are getting hurt on their trek into the U.S. Out in the remote areas of the desert, these migrants are not likely to survive.
Aside from the dangers of the desert, migrants are also risking their lives trying to cross the river in the Del Rio Sector of Eagle Pass. Border Patrol made four rescues last week, and the Texas Department of Public Safety tells NewsNation they are averaging about one drowning every day.
“It has gotten more difficult due to resources being tied up with all those give-up groups. And then when you do have to flex to legitimate traffic or 911 calls, you’re out of pocket, and it makes it harder to save those lives or answer those Border Patrol regular-duty assignments,” Border Patrol agent Oscar Lopez told NewsNation.