Dia de los Muertos event held for migrant lives lost

BROWNSVILLE, Texas ( ValleyCentral ) — Immigration advocates from across the Rio Grande Valley held a Dia de los Muertos celebration to honor the lives lost along the southern border.

U.S. Border Patrol has kept a record of migrant deaths since 1998 and have reported 8,000 deaths along the border since then.

Organizers say many were lost due to inhumane policies and a fight for a better life.

The faces of some of the migrants who lost their lives along the border were shown throughout the event. Altars also featured photos of dozens lost along the border and others who lost their lives in the U.S. like the six workers who died during the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in March.

Michelle Serrano, of Voces Unidas, says migration is something natural that has occurred for ages but new policies such as the militarization of the border are affecting that.

“Migration is a natural phenomenon, and there’s no amount of spending that we can do, no amount of boots on the ground, no amount of walls that will be able to stop people from moving,” Serrano said. “That is just the natural course of life.”

She adds that the terrain and way to cross has also become much more difficult leading to some never reaching U.S. soil.

Hundreds of crosses were also displayed dedicated to those who have died trying to make the journey, including children.

Casa de Proyecto Libertad Director Rogelio Nunez says they get calls daily from migrants asking for help when they can no longer withstand the elements.

Just last month, he said a migrant almost died and was saved thanks to a phone call to authorities.

“They immediately did a temperature, see how and he was at 104 or 105 degrees,” Nunez said. “They had to put him in front of the air conditioner, cool him down, drink water and get him back to hydration. And he survived. He’s a young Guatemalan who, again, got lost and was in the last moment of, if he didn’t make that call, and they don’t get the coordinates, he would have been found dead.”

Nunez also offered a eulogy to his late friend Eduardo “Eddie” Canales, the founder of the South Texas Human Rights Center. Canales helped create a plan for Border Patrol to help locate migrants lost on the journey.

A live portrait of Canales was being made as people spoke.

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