The Homelands Blog

Shining a light on migrant program’s “fatal flaw”

For the September 2024 issue of High Country News, Homelands producer Bear Guerra photographed a cover story by Tanvi Misra about the US Border Patrol’s Missing Migrant Program. Border Patrol is mostly known for its primary mandate to detain and deport migrants, but it also has a responsibility — for which it receives significant federal funding — to rescue migrants in distress.

Critics see these intertwined missions as a conflict of interest, which often makes the journey for migrants even more perilous, especially across the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. Produced in partnership with Type Investigations, this story explores the tension between the agency’s law enforcement and humanitarian roles, and how this plays out in real life in the borderlands.

Bear Guerra is the photo editor for High Country News. All photos below are his.

The early morning sun shines through the Sonoran Desert landscape near the U.S.-Mexico border in southern Arizona. According to the International Organization for Migration, the U.S.-Mexico border is the deadliest land route for migrants in the world.
Migrants’ backpacks and other belongings are scattered on the ground in the Sonoran Desert near the Tohono O’odham Nation Reservation in Arizona.
Art Garcia and Gloria Zazueta have been helping find lost migrants on the Tohono O’odham Reservation for nearly 15 years.
A Customs and Border Patrol Missing Migrant Program rescue beacon located in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument near the US-Mexico border in Arizona.
About Homelands

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Homelands Productions is an independent nonprofit journalism cooperative. Since our founding in 1989, we have reported from more than 60 countries, produced nine special series for public radio and television, and won 22 national and international awards.

We also serve as a nonprofit fiscal sponsor for projects that excite us, and our Public Interest Reporting Defense Fund helps journalists whose work has gotten them in trouble.

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Producer-members Sandy Tolan, Alan Weisman, Jonathan Miller, Ruxandra Guidi, and Bear Guerra work in radio, podcasting, photography, video, and print. We are also authors, teachers, and mentors.

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