"Funnel Effect" and recovered bodies of unauthorized migrants in Arizona

The Binational Migration Institute's ongoing analysis of known unauthorized border crosser (UBC) deaths, that is, "recovered bodies," in the U.S./ Border Patrol's Tucson Sector makes plain that this sector has been the site of the vast majority of known UBC deaths in the United States in the new millennium, creating a major public health and humanitarian crisis in the deserts of Arizona.

Unlike other studies of the unprecedented increase in known deaths of UBCs, this project has been scientifically designed in order to measure the consequences of the "Funnel Effect" created by U.S. border control policies initiated in the early l990's which purposefully funneled unauthorized workers away from previously popular crossing points in Texas and California. BMI's results clearly illustrate that the funnel effect is indeed the main structural cause of an exponential increase in the number of UBC recovered bodies handled by the Pima County Medical Examiner's Office (PCMEO) from l990 to the present. From l990-2005, for instance the PCMEO examined 927 UBC recovered bodies, which, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office account for at least 78% of the unprecedented increase in known UBC deaths along the entire southwest border of the United States.