“Dead in the Desert,” a two-day series, explores a growing number of human remains discovered — and left unrecovered — near New Mexico’s southern border and a U.S. immigration system many say is broken, leading to these tragic results.

Legal migration grows increasingly unfeasible amid record-high backlogs
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Legal migration grows increasingly unfeasible amid record-high backlogs

  • By André Salkin asalkin@sfnewmexican.com
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  • 6 min to read

The legal process for entering the U.S. is nearly impossible even for foreign nationals seeking refuge from violence in their home countries. 

'An open graveyard': Skeletal remains lie unrecovered in New Mexico's borderlands
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'An open graveyard': Skeletal remains lie unrecovered in New Mexico's borderlands

  • By André Salkin and Margaret O’Hara asalkin@sfnewmexican.com mohara@sfnewmexican.com
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  • 13 min to read

In just over a year, a volunteer organization found more than two dozen sites containing human bones in the Southern New Mexico desert.

El Paso Sector known as 'deadliest single place on the border'
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El Paso Sector known as 'deadliest single place on the border'

  • By André Salkin and Margaret O’Hara asalkin@sfnewmexican.com mohara@sfnewmexican.com
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  • 2 min to read

Migrants crossing through the El Paso Sector of the U.S. border, 264 miles along West Texas and New Mexico, often face rough terrain in remote…

Inquiry into unrecovered remains was guided by story of Salvadoran migrant
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Inquiry into unrecovered remains was guided by story of Salvadoran migrant

  • By Margaret O’Hara mohara@sfnewmexican.com
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This project — the result of nearly six months of work — will leave a lasting imprint on the reporters and photographer who pieced it together.

An unlikely act of protest: Searching the desert for dead migrants
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An unlikely act of protest: Searching the desert for dead migrants

  • By André Salkin asalkin@sfnewmexican.com
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  • 5 min to read

Finding hundreds of sites of migrant remains has taken its toll on James Holeman. He doesn't plan on stopping anytime soon.

A mission to find and remember the dead
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A mission to find and remember the dead

  • By Margaret O’Hara mohara@sfnewmexican.com
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  • 3 min to read

Cesar Ortigoza's group conducts searches for migrants, coordinates with families who have missing loved ones and memorializes the deceased.

Gallery: Group searches for human remains in New Mexico's borderlands
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Gallery: Group searches for human remains in New Mexico's borderlands

  • By Michael G. Seamans The New Mexican
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  • 2 min to read