THE MISSING MIGRANT PROJECT

We are a family advocacy organization working to end migrant death and related suffering on the U.S.-Mexico border.

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Reportar Un Migrante Desaparecido

REPORT A PERSON MISSING ON THE BORDER. {Página en Español} This page will allow you to file a missing persons report with the Colibrí Center for Human Rights. All information collected in this form is confidential and all precaution will be taken to maintain your privacy. We will not release names, phone numbers, or identifiable information to outside agencies without your explicit permission. The Colibrí Center for Human Rights is not a law enforcement agency. This information is collected solely to support the search for a missing loved one last seen crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

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THE MISSING MIGRANT PROJECT & DNA PROGRAM

We partner with families and forensic scientists to find the missing and help identify those who have died. We collect detailed missing persons reports as well as DNA samples from families searching for missing loved ones on the border. We when work with medical examiners to compare this information to that of unidentified individuals.

FAMILY NETWORK

The Family Network is a community of mutual support and solidarity between families and friends of migrants who disappeared while attempting to cross the US-Mexico border. It is a space in which families of the disappeared can come to know others going through the same difficult situation, building a network of trust and support as they wait for answers and navigate the many obstacles of the search.

HISTORIAS Y RECUERDOS

Historias y Recuerdos is a testimony project where families reflect, remember, and share stories about a loved one who is missing on the border. These stories are powerful, both in the experience of sharing them and in that of listening to them. They demonstrate how unique and irreplaceable each individual human being is and serve to raise consciousness about the human rights crisis on the border.

Partners

  • Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State

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  • South Texas Human Rights Center

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  • Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner

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  • Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team

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  • University of Arizona – The School of Anthropology

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WHO IS
DAYANI CRISTAL?

This award winning documentary depicts the true story of a man who died crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and who was identified by the efforts at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner and the Colibrí Center for Human Rights. A unique clue reveals his identity, and those who come into contact with him tell a human story that challenges the walls, divisions, and border that currently characterize the immigration debate.

Check out the film!

FACTS

  • Starting in the 1990’s, the federal government implemented “prevention through deterrence” policies that put the lives of migrating people at risk by pushing them into areas of the border where  “mountains, deserts, lakes, rivers and valleys form natural barriers to passage.” The strategic plan also spoke about “the searing heat of the southern border” and said that, “[people] crossing through remote, uninhabited expanses of land and sea along the border can find themselves in mortal danger.”

    U.S. Border Patrol Strategic Plan (1994)

  • Colibrí currently has reports for more than 3,000 missing people last seen crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. We have sampled more than 583 individual family members for DNA in the hope of helping them find answers about their loved ones.

    Colibrí Center for Human Rights (2018)

  • Between 1990 and 1999, the average number of migrant deaths in Southern Arizona was 12. From 2000 to 2017, that number spiked to 157 deaths per year. Between 1990 to 2017, the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner examined 2,939 individuals who died crossing the border in Arizona.

    PCOME Data on UBC Deaths (2018)

  • More than 60,000 migrants have died worldwide since 2000. The deaths and disappearances of migrating people is a global human rights crisis.

    International Organization for Migration (2017)