Death By Policy: Crisis in the Arizona Desert

For over a year, Futuro Investigates has dug into how the Border Patrol’s decades-long “prevention through deterrence” policies have purposely created a deadly funnel, pushing migrants attempting to cross from Mexico to the U.S. into the deadliest terrain in the country, including the Sonoran Desert in Arizona.

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Immigration

How U.S. Policies Contributed to a Crisis in the Arizona Desert

As the death toll across the border continues to rise, volunteer organizations go out into the most dangerous areas to search for missing people. Futuro Investigates examine why volunteers, lacking financial resources, continue to take on this dangerous work while Border Patrol’s multi-billion budget continues to increase.

Immigration

Podcast: Death By Policy: Crisis in the Arizona Desert

Listen to our podcast and follow along by reading the transcription.

Opinion

A Weekend Search Mission in the Arizona Desert: A Reporter’s Notebook

Pulitzer Prize-winning senior producer and investigative reporter Julieta Martinelli spent two days in the desert while investigating deaths of migrants in Arizona, along with a group of search and rescue volunteers called The Blue Armadillos. In this reporter’s notebook, she reflects on her experience while reporting for Futuro Investigates & Latino USA’s newest investigation, “Death by Policy: Crisis In The Arizona Desert.”

Opinion

Reporting an Old Story: Why Covering the Migrant Crisis in the Desert Matters Today

For over three decades, Pulitzer-award winning journalist Maria Hinojosa has been covering immigration policies in the U.S. In her first piece for Futuro Investigates, she reflects about why the crisis of migrants crossing the desert might be a decades-old story, but should matter to all of us right now.

Immigration

Our Methodology Note

While reporting this story we relied on open records requests, historic documents, public databases, international treaties and legislative records. We also immersed ourselves in books, films and other media. Here is just some of what we consumed.

Credits