Invisible and unaccounted for: Why some migrant deaths on the border aren't recorded

A study examined discrepancies between the numbers of migrant deaths reported by county and federal agencies, neither of which reflect remains that haven't been recovered.

Oscar Andrade says every day is an opportunity to rescue migrants in the Arizona desert, where temperatures exceeded 110 degrees Fahrenheit this year.

“People are dying from the heat. We always have to bring them water and help them, and it's also cold in the desert in winter; if they don’t wear warm clothes, they get hypothermia and they also die. Temperatures are a problem,” said Andrade, an evangelical pastor who heads Capellanes del Desierto (Desert Chaplains), an organization dedicated to search-and-rescue work in the desert.

For four years, the group has been working in the border states of California, New Mexico, Texas and Arizona, where it has rescued 362 people and found 183 bodies.

For Andrade, the number of sets of migrant remains is a cause for worry.

"We have numbers of people who died that neither the coroner nor CBP has because those remains have not been recovered,” Andrade said, referring to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. “We have found many bones in the desert, but they're not complete, so in many cases, a DNA test cannot be done on those remains because there's no way to obtain it.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/migrant-deaths-border-arizona-desert-numbers-rcna182602

---