Hell or high water: Migrant deaths in El Paso canals, Chihuahuan Desert mount

Border-crossing deaths in the El Paso area are mounting, as migrants desperate to reach the U.S. risk dangerous canals and scorching temperatures.

At least 37 migrants have died of injuries, drowning, dehydration and vehicle fatalities crossing into El Paso and southern New Mexico since October 2021, compared with 39 in all of fiscal 2021. Border Patrol in the Big Bend sector east of El Paso has reported an additional 24 deaths in that time period, though that figure does not include bodies recovered by other law enforcement agencies.

Fifteen people suspected to be migrants have drowned in canals along the border or died of water-related injuries, the majority since irrigation season began in early June when the depth of fast-moving water increased sharply. In the rugged landscape surrounding El Paso, climate change is driving up temperatures in the Chihuahuan Desert, where migrants risk deadly dehydration or heat stroke. Five migrants have died of heat exposure in the El Paso Sector since October.

"This is a major human rights crisis at the border," said Fernando Garcia, executive director of the nonprofit Border Network for Human Rights in El Paso.

More: The US built a taller border wall. Migrants are falling, and their injuries are life-altering

Irrigation season brings more than a dozen canal drownings

Irrigation season on the Rio Grande poses a quiet threat. The system of concrete-lined canals that deliver Rio Grande water released from Elephant Butte in New Mexico to farms in Texas is designed to move the water rapidly; inches of water in winter can become 10- to 12-feet deep during the summer.

“The purpose of the canal is to get water as fast as possible to our agriculture community,” Border Patrol Agent Orlando Marrero said.

“At 62 pounds per square foot, the water traveling nine miles per hour will create exactly 302 pounds of force,” said Marrero, a trained emergency medical technician. “Imagine an average person, five-feet-eight or nine, in 10-foot deep water: There is no way. They are going to be swept."

Agents in the sector go through a yearly swift-water training.

“Our El Paso station leadership is fully aware of the dangers,” said Border Patrol El Paso Sector spokeswoman Valeria Morales. “There are chains and rescue ropes along the canal. But sometimes (migrants) are unable to grab onto them or they are too weak to hold on."

More: El Paso County rescue team recovers body in San Elizario canal as border deaths continue

Morales said El Paso Station leaders have discussed ways to prevent drownings in the canals. The El Paso County Irrigation District controls water flow through the canals, which are under the jurisdiction of the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC).

Irrigation district manager Jesus Reyes said most drowning deaths take place in the American Canal alongside the border fence, which under the Trump administration was built taller, to 30 feet.

“That made it more dangerous,” Reyes said. “Those people are coming over and, in some cases, they climb over and fall directly into the canal.”

“These people are trying to come over to make a better life," he said. "All we can do is try and get the word to these people to not to attempt it.”

IBWC public affairs officer Lori Kuczmanski said each year the IBWC and other agencies emphasize the dangers of approaching the canals.

More: Advocates fear migrants deaths on rise in El Paso with canal drownings, I-10 fatalities

Crossing the Chihuahuan Desert is a dangerous gamble

The Chihuahuan Desert surrounding El Paso — extending east into Big Bend country and west across New Mexico — rises and falls over mountainous ridges and offers no respite from heat that can push the human body to its limit. This fiscal year five of the 37 migrant deaths in El Paso sector, which includes 264 miles of borderline in New Mexico and West Texas, have been heat-related. 

Dehydration starts as dry mouth. Dry mouth turns to dry heaving. The veins constrict and muscles begin to cramp up. Or the body will stop sweating and begin seizing, signs of heat stroke.

“The New Mexico region — Lordsburg and Deming — it is remote and mountainous,” Morales said. “It takes hours to days for these groups to reach a highway. It is already harsh terrain and you add triple-digit temperatures to that mix, it’s dangerous.”

Criminal organizations routinely leave behind injured or dehydrated migrants, who then die in the desert, she said.

Two pedestrians killed in early April on Interstate 10 near Sunset Heights may have been undocumented immigrants, but law enforcement has not confirmed their identities.

If Border Patrol leadership believes the person is a migrant, it often will be included in the statistics — but not always. "There have been instances where a person dies in the canal or in the desert and they are not a migrant; they are a local," Morales said.

More: Two pedestrians, driver killed in separate El Paso traffic collisions on Interstate 10

Climate change multiplies risks in the Big Bend Sector

Arizona's Sonoran Desert, which has even higher temperatures than the Chihuahuan Desert, has claimed migrant lives for decades. But an increase in border crossings in West Texas, and rising temperatures linked to climate change, means more migrants are now being exposed to deadly heat in the Chihuahuan Desert.

East of El Paso, Border Patrol agents in Big Bend Sector patrol 517 miles of U.S.-Mexico borderline demarcated by the Rio Grande. The desert terrain is rugged and the climate extreme, ranging from severe heat in the summer to freezing temperatures in winter. Border Patrol has recorded 24 migrant deaths in Big Bend in the first eight months of fiscal 2022, the same number recorded in all of fiscal 2021.

The total number is likely much higher, the Culberson County sheriff's office alone reported recovering more than 20 bodies in 2021.