The Center for Migration Studies Releases a Special Edition on Migrant Deaths Along the US-Mexico Border and Beyond

New York, NY – The Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS), through its public policy journal, the Journal on Migration and Human Security (JMHS), has released a special edition on migrant deaths along the US-Mexico border and beyond. Entitled “Forced Migration, Deterrence, and Solutions to the Non-Natural Disaster of Migrant Deaths Along the US-Mexico Border and Beyond,” the volume contains 11 papers which provide a comprehensive look at the number of migrant deaths over the past two decades and how restrictive US immigration policies have contributed to those deaths. The special edition also contains updated data on the number of deaths and includes policy recommendations to better record and prevent these tragedies.

“The studies in this special edition provide detailed data on migrant deaths, including those not counted in official tallies,” according to Donald Kerwin, editor of JMHS and former executive director of CMS. “They argue that more complete and timely data on migrant deaths can help drive better policies and save lives.” As an example, the authors discovered that for Arizona, the Pima County Medical Examiner’s office recorded 3,634 migrant deaths from FY 2000-2022, while the Border Patrol recorded only 3,069 deaths during the same period, a 17 percent difference.

Daniel E. Martínez, Associate Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the Binational Migration Institute at the University of Arizona, a contributor to the volume, argues in his essay that US immigration policies directly and adversely impact the number of migrant deaths: “These deaths are a consequence of forced displacement coupled with increased immigration enforcement strategies, including ‘prevention through deterrence,’ the denial of access to asylum, and the expansion of the border wall, among other factors.”

Mario Russell, Executive Director of CMS, added some context to the issue: “We often hear of migrants crossing the border, but we do not hear about the human consequences of these journeys. Our elected officials need to reconsider the nation’s immigration policies so that migrants can enter the country in an orderly way so as to work or join their families, and not at risk of their lives.”