El Paso County Commissioners to address rise in migrant deaths
EL PASO, TX (KVIA) — Advocates from the Hope Border Institute are urging local county leaders to take action as the El Paso Border Patrol Sector became the deadliest along the border in 2024. The organization will address El Paso County Commissioners for the first time today, during the Commissioners Court meeting.
A new report shows the sector reported 196 fatalities in 2024, a rise from 143 in 2023.
ABC-7 spoke with Aimée Santillán, policy analyst for the Hope Border Institute, who explained most of the deaths are due to dehydration and heat exposure in the outskirts of El Paso County and areas like the Mount Cristo Rey desert and Santa Teresa desert.
Santillán says migrant deaths have been happening since the beginning of the prevention through deterrence that was introduced the 1990's, but the rise locally started after President Biden passed the asylum proclamation in June of last year. “2023 was the first year that the number of deaths surpassed 100 with 143 deaths for the fiscal year,” she said.
Santillán says the most concerning part of the issue is the lack of concrete data regarding migrant deaths, “the county’s office of the medical examiner hasn't implemented a system to really analyze that data and differentiate between resident deaths and migrant deaths,” Santillán said.
The Hope Border Institute is calling on commissioners to improve data tracking to help non-governmental organizations (NGOs) address the crisis.
After speaking with Border Patrol and first responders for the organization’s report, Making Migrant Death Data Count, Santillán says their research revealed Border Patrol is understaffed and search-and-rescue missions are underfunded. “Sometimes they'll encounter someone while they're patrolling, but they don't have the medical resources or personnel that can quickly attend to the person,” Santillán said.
“We're very excited that the Commissioners Court is acknowledging this issue as a crisis for the first time,” Santillán said. “We need to really understand the data to know what other options we have, to really respond to what's going on.”
The Commissioners Court meeting will start at 9:30 a.m. at the Enrique Moreno County Courthouse.
Stay with ABC-7 for the latest developments.
