PREVENTING MIGRANT DEATHS IN THE MEXICO-ARIZONA BORDER: EDUCATIONAL INTERVENTIONS TO REDUCE THE RISK OF EXERTIONAL HEAT ILLNESS AND HYPOTHERMIA

Abstract

Hundreds of undocumented migrants die each year trying to cross the US-Mexico border. A conservative estimate by the US Border Patrol suggests that between 1998 and 2012 a total of 5,595 people perished in their journey toward America. The situation is particularly severe in the Mexico-Arizona border area, where the bodies of 2,908 migrants were found between 2000 and 2015. Unsurprisingly, the leading cause of death in this desert frontier is exposure to the elements (i.e. hypo- and hyperthermia). This honors thesis is a modest effort to understand and prevent migrant deaths in southern Arizona. It consists of two parts: (I) a literature review that covers the militarization of the US-Mexico border, migrant deaths in southern Arizona, human thermoregulation, exertional heat illness (EHI), aspects of migrant material culture that increase the risk of EHI, and hypothermia; (II) a poster and two information sheets designed to teach Spanish-speaking migrants how to prevent and respond to hypothermia and EHI in the desert. Materials like these could be delivered to migrant shelters in Mexico in a bid to reduce migrant mortality during attempts to cross the border.