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“Recently, we have encountered many more families than usual from 18 different countries,” she said. “Many were assaulted or robbed along the way and yet, still, they want to come here because they are fleeing violence, oppression and poverty in their home countries.” Each of the more than 629,000 encounters were processed under Title 8, a decades-old immigration law that includes swifter, stricter deportation measures, but also allows for a larger number of asylum and refugee seekers to enter the country. For many, the journey was long and traumatic. “One thing we observed is migrants are often lied to by smugglers — coyotes, as they’re known — about how easy the journey is going to be,” Cantillo said. “They may show up wearing sandals or kids in crocs or people pushing baby strollers through thorn-scrub because they were told it was just a 30-minute walk.” And that ill-preparation can lead to devastating consequences. Mapping death “Dying alone in the desert of heat stroke is a horrible, horrible way to die,” Cantillo said. Aside from providing safe water stations to migrants, hikers and hunters throughout the Sonoran Desert, Humane Borders also publishes a migrant mortality map on its website. There, visitors encounter a sea of red dots strewn across southern Arizona and extending north of Phoenix. Each of the 4,177 dots is a case of a migrant’s body found over the last four decades, regardless of whether they were identified. Pinal County has the third-most with 288 cases reported since 1990. Some causes of death in the desert are obvious: dehydration or overheating. A surprising number died by drowning, likely by attempting to drink from or cool down in a canal. And others are suspicious. Blunt force trauma, multiple gunshot wounds and asphyxiation. That was the case with Jesus Anaya Longoria who, at age 30, was found dead from multiple blunt force injuries near Amarillo Valley and Papago Roads in Thunderbird Farms in 2007. Or a group of 21- to 40-year-old men found dead from multiple gunshot wounds in the chest and abdomen along Interstate 10 in 2003. But so many are labeled with a case number and two words: “unidentified, undetermined.” That is where the medical examiner and other players get involved.
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Unidentified remains lie on examination tables in a walk-in freezer at the Pinal County Medical Examiner’s Office in Florence.
MAPPING PINAL COUNTY’S UNIDENTIFIED
As of Feb. 9, 2024, Arizona had 2,058 unidentified persons registered on NamUs, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System operated by the U.S. Department of Justice. Pinal County made up 7% with 147 unidentified cases, many of whom are believed to be the remains of migrants traveling northward from the border.
Apache Junction 7
1
Superior
3
Queen Creek
13
3
Sacaton
2
Maricopa
17
177
19
Florence
General area between I-10 & SR 177
Casa Grande
25 Eloy
24
79
Stanfield
21300 N. John Wayne Parkway, Suite 110 Maricopa, AZ 85139 (520) 568-3303 www.CSCPAGroup.com
2
10
Mammoth
Picacho/Picacho Peak
3
2
Arizona City
Oracle
11
Red Rock
InMaricopa.com | March 2024
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