Border Patrol plans for summer surge in Arizona, urges migrants to cross legally

U.S. border officials are urging people to cross legally into the country and to call 911 if they cross illegally in an effort to prevent a humanitarian crisis if migrant crossings increase this summer as expected.

“If you are a migrant, I urge you to cross legally. If you cross illegally call 911 before you face tragic circumstances,” said John Modlin, the Border Patrol's chief patrol agent in the Tucson Sector. “Use our rescue beacons to call for help before desperation turns deadly.”

Modlin joined other officials as well as representatives from Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico Thursday to warn migrants of the risks if they cross illegally into Arizona.

Juan Pablo Valdivieso, Ecuador's consul general in Phoenix, attended the safety briefing at a time when the southern border is seeing an increase in Ecuadorian crossings.

As the summer months near, the number of crossings are expected to increase at the U.S. Border Patrol Tucson Sector, which covers the eastern two-thirds of the Arizona border.

The number of crossings tripled from 2020 to 2021, Modlin said, and last year saw 370,000 crossings compared to 250,000 the year before.

“If it gets to 700,000 or 800,000 (crossings), where it's aimed at right now, that'd be a tenfold increase from where we were just in 2020,” Modlin said, adding that Tucson is the Border Patrol's busiest sector on the southwestern border.

Modlin highlighted a range of dangers facing migrants who cross into Arizona outside official ports of entry, especially in the summer. After calling for help, migrants could wait hours in 110-degree heat for the Border Patrol to reach them because they crossed into a remote area.

Migrants are at the mercy of smuggling organizations that carry out financial extortion or violence and sexual abuse, Modlin said.

“They can be killed. They can make it across the border, only to be left behind at the mercy of the environment,” Modlin said. Or they can be forced into labor or sex trafficking, he said.

The death of migrants in the desert has been ongoing for decades. Over the past 20 years, the southern Arizona desert has claimed the lives of thousands of migrants, numbers that are likely to rise as climate change exacerbates the situation.

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One nonprofit organization that has seen the tragic consequences of illegal migration is the faith-based Capellanas del Desierto, or Desert Chaplains. The Christian group works with the Border Patrol and consulates to help find missing migrants and recover dead bodies.

"Since mid-February, the calls for help from families of our brother migrants from Guatemala, México, Salvador, Honduras and, this last week, ... Ecuador have increased," Pastor Oscar Andrade said.

Last year, the rescue-and-recovery group helped rescue 170 migrants and recover 32 bodies. Now the group wants to work with international governments, nonprofits and schools to warn people of the risks of migrating illegally to the U.S.

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“We are doing awareness campaigns in different countries like Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador,” Andrade said.

In July the group will travel to Guatemala to meet with government human rights groups about their awareness campaign.

They want to work with schools to spread their message to students finishing high school who might want to migrate, because young people are often recruited by criminal organizations.

Border Patrol preparing for a summer surge

Each year, the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector surges staff and resources to the area near Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and the surrounding desert during the summer months when the number of rescue calls spikes.

This summer is no different. Modlin said the agency and its partners are working to move as many assets to the border as possible and to increase messaging about emergency beacons and calling 911.

The agency has been engaging more with local nonprofits than in the past to deal with the large number of migrants crossing.

As federal funding could expire for the system that keeps migrants off the streets, Modlin said the Border Patrol will try to minimize impacts by working with local nonprofits, such as the state's largest migrant shelter Casa Alitas as well as county emergency managers and law enforcement.

“We’re in constant communication with all the county emergency managers, the police, everybody, to try to figure out the best way to … mitigate the impacts,” Modlin said. “There certainly will be impacts, but as many as we can mitigate, we try to.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'Cross legally': Border Patrol urges ahead of expected summer surge