No abstract

No abstract

Motivated by the humanitarian crisis along the US-Mexico border and the need for more integrative approaches to migrant death investigations, we employ both biological and cultural anthropology perspectives to provide insight into these deaths and the forensic identification process. We propose that structural vulnerabilities linked to ethnicity impact the success of identifying deceased migrants. Using forensic genetic data, we examine the relationships among identification status, case year, and ancestry, demonstrating how Native American and European ancestry proportions differ between identified and unidentified migrant fatalities, revealing an otherwise unrecognized identification bias. We find that Mexican migrants with more European ancestry are more often successfully identified in recent years. We attribute this bias in identification to the layers of structural vulnerability that uniquely affect indigenous Mexican migrants. By demonstrating the impact that social processes like structural violence can have on the relative success of forensic casework along the US-Mexico border, our work underscores the fact that forensic casework is itself a social process. Research undertaken with the intent to improve forensic identification protocols should consider social context, a factor that could significantly impact identification rates.This study shows the need for collaboration between forensic practitioners and those working closely with affected communities. [US-Mexico border, forensic anthropology, migration, admixture, DNA] RESUMEN Motivados por la crisis humanitaria a lo largo de la frontera entre México y Estados Unidos y la necesidad de aproximaciones más integrales para las investigaciones de las muertes de migrantes, empleamos tanto perspectivas de la antropología biológica como de la cultural para entender estas muertes y el proceso forense de identificación. Proponemos que las vulnerabilidades estructurales conectadas con la etnicidad impactan eléxito para identificar los migrantes fallecidos. Usando información forense genética, examinamos las relaciones entre el estado de identificación, el año del caso, y la ascendencia, y se muestra cómo las proporciones de ascendencia nativo americana y europea difieren entre los migrantes fallecidos identificados y no identificados, revelando de otra parte sesgos de identificación no reconocidos. Encontramos que los migrantes mejicanos con mayor ascendencia europea son más a menudo exitosamente identificados en años recientes. Atribuimos este sesgo en la identificación, a las capas de vulnerabilidad estructural queúnicamente afectan a los migrantes mejicanos indígenas. Demostrando el impacto que los procesos sociales, como la violencia estructural pueden tener en el relativoéxito del estudio forense de antecedentes individuales a lo largo de la frontera entre Estados Unidos y México, nuestro trabajo enfatiza el hecho que el estudio forense de antecedentes individuales es en sí mismo un proceso social. La investigación emprendida con el propósito de mejorar lo...

This article analyzes numeric trends and demographic characteristics of undocumented border crossers (UBCs) who have perished in southern Arizona between 1990 and 2013 in the area covered by the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner (PCOME) in Tucson, Arizona. Of 2,413 UBC decedents investigated during this period, 95 percent died after 1999 and 65 percent after 2005. The rate of UBC deaths in the Tucson Border Patrol Sector has been consistently high, with an average of nearly 163 deaths investigated per year between 1999 and 2013. The increase in border enforcement during the mid-to-late 1990s, which led to a shifting of unauthorized migration flows into more desolate areas, coincided with an increase in migrant remains investigated by the PCOME. Despite a decrease in the number of unauthorized crossers traversing the area as measured by the number of Border Patrol apprehensions in the Tucson Sector, the number of remains examined for every 100,000 apprehensions nearly doubled between 2009 and 2011. These findings suggest that migrants are being forced to travel for longer periods of time through remote areas in an attempt to avoid detection by US authorities, thus increasing the probability of death. The typical UBC decedent can be described as a male near the age of 30 from central or southern Mexico who perished in a remote area of southern Arizona after attempting to cross into the United States. Nevertheless, the share of non-Mexican UBCs in the region has increased notably over time. The findings show other important differences in UBC decedent characteristics across time periods, which speak to the dynamic nature of unauthorized migration as a social process. The authors contend that these deaths and demographic changes are the result of structural and political transformations over the past two decades. They argue that the tragic, yet mostly preventable, migrant deaths in southern Arizona constitute a form of structural violence.

Objectives: We examine the prevalence and sociodemographic risk factors of skeletal indicators of stress in forensic samples of undocumented migrants from Mexico and Central America.Materials and methods: Cranial and dental remains of 319 migrants recovered in the Arizona and Texas borderlands were assessed for porotic hyperostosis (PH), cribra orbitalia (CO), and linear enamel hypoplasias (LEH). Logistic regression models for each condition were estimated to test for associations with biological sex, age, recovery location, and whether individuals were identified. Additional models estimated for a subsample of identified migrants included region of origin, residential context, and community indigeneity. Results:The full sample shows moderate crude prevalence of CO (9.6%) and LEH (34.1%), and a high prevalence of PH (49.6%). Significantly higher odds of PH are associated with being male (2.16 times higher), unidentified (1.89 times higher), and recovered in Arizona (3.76 times higher). Among identified migrants, we fail to find associations significant at the p < 0.05 level between skeletal stress and all sociodemographic variables except age.Discussion: The factors associated with PH may be related to influences on decisions to migrate and diversity among migrant sending regions. The skeletal evidence for early life stress is generally consistent with common public health concerns among impoverished communities in the region. The lesions themselves are viewed as embodied risk of physiological disturbance when resource access is structured by higher-level social, economic, and political forces. Forensic anthropologists would benefit from increased sensitivity to embodied structural violence among the vulnerable individuals and communities they serve.