The distance - The crossing here, and then over [the] fence, is followed by a walk of two or three days, up to 50 miles on ancient trails through a desert wilderness, to reach the nearest road, on the Tohono O'odham Nation Indian Reservation, a wedge of desert the size of Connecticut that is overrun with [undocumented] immigrants, or on adjacent federal park or wildlife land. Most people start off with no more than two gallons of water, weighing almost 17 pounds, in plastic jugs.  With daytime temperatures over 100 degrees in the desert, a person [needs] a gallon of water just to survive walking five miles. 

– Adapted from the N.Y. Times, May 23, 2004

Drownings – The All American Canal, located east of San Diego in the southern desert of the Imperial Valley, has long been a death trap for migrants trying to gain entry into the United States. The canal has claimed nearly 700 lives, the vast majority of which have been migrants from Mexico. For almost 70 years the governing body of the canal has been unwilling to add adequate safety features such as ladders and ropes. The deaths have gone unnoticed and many of the unclaimed bodies end up in a desert pauper’s grave next to a dumpsite. Increased border security will force migrant traffic to cross the canal and the death toll is expected to skyrocket.     --Adapted from John Carlos Frey, Gatekeeper Productions 

It was the middle of the night when U.S. Border Patrol surveillance camera operators spotted Cesar Coriche Flores’ group heading north toward the All-American Canal. When agents arrived on the scene, they picked up five people on land and found two more still in the water. They learned one member of the group was missing.  Despite a search, agents came up empty. It wasn’t until more than 48 hours later, on June 8, 2009 that Coriche Flores’ body was discovered in the Briar Main Canal east of here by an Imperial Irrigation District employee. At 18 years old, he was the youngest person to drown trying to cross into Imperial County illegally this year, but in most respects his death was unexceptional.     – Adapted by the Water Education Foundation - Aquafornia

Each year hundreds of unaccompanied children under the age of eighteen attempt to enter the United States without documentation. These children come seeking to be reunited with parents or to find work to help support families in Mexico, Central America, or China. Many of these children reach the Mexican-American border exhausted and sometimes traumatized by their journey. They are arrested by Border Patrol and detained in BCIS facilities in San Diego awaiting removal proceedings in Immigration Court.  

—Adapted from Casa Cornelia Law Center

Ignacio Cervantes Pantoja, an 11 year old boy, has tried 3 times to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. The fifth-grader has a plan. He'll leave his family's home and take the dirt road across the street, through the park, and keep going until he reaches the edge of the steel-gate fencing that separates the United States from Mexico. He'll cross the border and find his great-uncle, Alfonso, who lives in Los Angeles. He'll get a good job and occasionally return home for visits and bring home presents. "I'll buy my dad a car," he said. "I'll have a good job, and we'll eat well."   -- Adapted from the Arizona Republic, May 23, 2004

Women - It is known that women are increasingly choosing to cross the U.S.-Mexico border despite the many risks involved to them and their children. In 2003, the Department of Homeland Security reported that women constituted 55 percent of immigrants to the United States.

Women crossing the U.S.-Mexico border have to worry about more than the harsh physical demands of crossing a vast desert. With the increase in women attempting to cross, there [has been] an increase in women’s physical and sexual assaults, deaths and murder. It is believed that 1 in 3 women crossing the border is physically and sexually assaulted. It is harder to know the number of women murdered, as this is not a category investigated or counted by the U.S. Border Patrol.  -- Adapted from Stop Border Deaths Now!  A project of the Border Working Group