Migrant deaths at US-Mexico border hit all-time high in 2022

Migrant deaths at America’s border with Mexico have reached a new all-time high for the second consecutive year. 566 bodies were found last year. So far this year, 609 bodies have been found, according to internal U.S. Customs and Border Protection data obtained by the Washington Examiner.

The 609 migrant deaths at the Mexico border more than double the deaths from fiscal years 2019 or 2020. There are still three months left in the 2022 fiscal year.

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas was directly asked if the border is safe in an interview last week. His response was met with scrutiny.

“The border is secure, we are working to make the border more secure,” Mayorkas said. “That has been a historic challenge.”

The 609 bodies recovered have been only from the U.S. side of the southern border. In the same interview, Mayorkas placed blame on Mexico’s side of the border for safety concerns.

“Safe and secure are two different words,” Mayorkas said. “There are smugglers who operate on the Mexican side of the border and placing one’s life in their hands is not safe.”

In May, Border Patrol apprehended 220,000 migrants, more than any other month in Border Patrol’s century-long existence.

The record number of migrant deaths at the U.S.-Mexico border is reflective of a larger disparity in health outcomes for migrants and refugees around the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) highlighted said deterioration in its first “World report on the health of refugees and migrants” released last week.

“The report demonstrates that refugees and migrants are not inherently less healthy than host populations,” the WHO wrote in a news release. “It is, rather, the impact of the various suboptimal health determinants, such as education, income, housing, access to services, compounded by linguistic, cultural, legal and other barriers and the interaction of these during the life course, that are behind poor health outcomes.”