Immigrant Death Toll Rises as Immigrants Cross Border Through Parts of Texas

Human remains, scattered carelessly throughout the desert, slowly decay in anonymity. A flag stands where the remains of a female immigrant was found in Falfurrias, Texas this past May. She died after trekking through more than 25 miles of ranch land to cross the border into the United States. Tragically, she was found feet away from a highway where she could have been picked up by other immigrants traveling to Houston. 

The unknown woman, who is believed to have died from hypothermia, is another casualty in the rising immigrant death toll in Brooks County, Tex. The rising number of discovered bodies provides evidence that Central American immigrants are traveling through parts of Southern Texas to get to the U.S. instead of taking well-known paths in Arizona, The New York Times reports. The changing patterns of undocumented immigrants have burdened Brooks County, a town with little experience--or funds--to deal with such matters. 

"There are some counties that have the economic wherewithal to take on these issues, and there are other counties that just don't have any money, so that puts them into a real bad bind," said Raquel Rubio-Goldsmith, coordinator of the Binational Migration Institute at the University of Arizona. 

The town is now making an effort to take the bodies and skeletal remains of immigrants to Webb Country for DNA sampling, autopsies, and efforts at identification. It is a big undertaking for a small town, whose sheriff personally delivers the corpses to the Loredo medical examiner. 

Brooks County found 129 bodies last year, which Judge Raul Ramirez, the county's top administrator, said drained the local budget. However, they have not received federal funds to take care of the worsening issue. 

Brooks County is only behind Pima County, Ariz. in the number of immigrant remains found. It's already had 76 so far this year. The county averaged 50 to 60 dead until last year. The number of immigrants detained in the Rio Grande Valley border sector in South Texas has outnumbered the usual leader, the Tucson sector, by more than 30,000. 

Immigrants die in Brooks County while trying to get around a Border Patrol checkpoint. They are forced to travel by foot for two or three days to a pickup spot north of the Border Patrol checkpoint. 

Although it is difficult to identify the remains, clothing and pictures found on the bodies give some hints as to who the person was. The woman found in May was discovered wearing a Gold's Gym T-shirt and pink Converse sneakers and was carrying a photograph of a boy, about five, wearing a suit and graduation cap. 

Before the county stepped up their efforts, unidentified immigrants were taken to a cemetery without DNA samples taken. Lori Baker, a Baylor University anthropologist, led a team to Texas to exhume the graves of such immigrants. She identified 54 marked graves but found 63 burials.

The body of the aforementioned woman was found on El Tule Ranch. The ranch manger, Lavoyger Durham, said that he wants the government to install a double-layer border fence to impede the flow of undocumented immigrants. But in the meantime, he put out a water station with a 55-gallon blue plastic drum holding one-gallon water jugs. The station is identified by a 30-foot pole and a blue flag. 

Durham said it was the first water station in the county, and that he plans to erect many more. He said that he doesn't want to see more people die coming through the county; he has personally found 25 bodies on his property in the last 23 years. 

"I'm trying to expose the killing fields of Brooks County," Durham said. "If dead human beings don't catch your attention, what the hell else is going to?"