Disappeared: How the US Border Enforcement Agencies are Fueling a Missing Persons Crisis. Part 3 - Factsheet: Unfit Responders: Border Patrol's Role in Search and Rescue

The Disappeared report series is collaborative project between two Tucson-based organizations, La Coalición de Derechos Humanos and No More Deaths. Between Derechos Humanos’ 20 years of community work, including the 24-hour Missing Migrant Crisis Line, and No More Deaths’ 12 years of humanitarian aid in the Arizona backcountry, we have witnessed and listened to thousands of stories of border crossings throughout Southern Arizona. Our research goals are transformative: to expose and combat those US government policing tactics that cause the crisis of death and mass disappearance in the borderlands.

In this factsheet, la Coalición de Derechos Humanos and No More Deaths explains why the US Border Patrol’s enforcement priority is in direct conflict with their ability to act as a search and rescue organization. The guiding policy of the agency is designed to endanger lives, and agents’ daily actions actively place people in harm's way. Border Patrol can never provide the solution to a crisis of their own making.