A US border agent patrols the wall in San Ysidro, California. Photograph: Sandy Huffaker/AFP/Getty Images Barack Obama occupied the White House during the water vandalism detailed in the report. Pima county’s medical examiner received the remains of at least 593 border crossers during this period.
Trump’s plan to further fortify the border and deport more people – people who often will try to return – will mean more suffering and death, said Deighan. “We do expect this crisis to worsen under the current administration.”
Border crossers should drink between five to 12 litres of water daily, depending on conditions. Few manage to carry more than seven litres even though a journey through the desolate scrub can last several days or even weeks.
According to No More Deaths, of 31,558 gallon jugs of water left on migration trails between 2012 and 2015, over 86% was used.
Birds, cattle and other animals destroyed 533 gallons and humans destroyed 3,586 gallons, said the report.
Hunters, militia members and other actors were partly to blame but statistical analysis of the different land jurisdictions – national forest, state trust land and private land – identified border patrol as the only group with regular access and consistent presence in all three jurisdictions.
The report also cited anecdotal evidence from volunteers and an unnamed former border patrol agent interviewed last year who was quoted saying: “I remember people smashing and stepping on water bottles, I remember that being imparted on to us in one way or another.”
The report also quoted a 37-year-old Mexican border crosser named Miguel: “They break the bottles so you can’t even use them to fill up in the tanks. I needed water, some of the other people in the group needed water, but we found them destroyed. [I felt] helplessness, rage. They [the US border patrol] must hate us.”
The report is the second of a three-part series on death and disappearance on the border. The first part was released last year.