THE MISSING MIGRANT PROJECT

We identify human remains on the US-Mexico border through comprehensive forensic research and reliable data on missing persons.

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Reportar Un Migrante Desaparecido

[Esta página está en español] If you know someone who went missing crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, especially if they went missing crossing into Arizona, please fill out the form located on this page as a first step to submitting a missing persons report with the Colibrí Center for Human Rights. Once you complete and submit this online form, our staff will be in touch with you to complete the full report via phone. We have taken all necessary precaution to ensure the privacy and security of the families we work with. The information you report to us will remain confidential and will only be used to find missing people and help identify people who have died. Colibrí is not a law enforcement agency and we do not inquire about immigration status. We are a nongovernmental, nonprofit organization dedicated to accompanying families through the process of searching for a missing loved one.

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Partners

  • Southern Border Communities Coalition

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  • No More Deaths/No Más Muertes

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  • University of Arizona Southwest Center

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  • 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)

  • U.S. Border Patrol recorded more than 7,216 recovered remains of assumed migrants between fiscal years 1998 and 2017. These numbers are considered by many experts to be a low estimation of the actual number of deaths in the borderlands.

    U.S. Customs and Border Protection (2017)

THE MISSING MIGRANT PROJECT & DNA PROGRAM

We partner with families and forensic scientists to find missing people and help identify people who have lost their lives on the border. We collect detailed missing persons reports as well as DNA samples from families searching for missing loved ones. We then 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.