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Migrant deaths up in July as temperatures surged

Volunteers from the group No More Deaths leave water in the desert for migrants in 2018. The number of migrants who died in the desert spiked during July’s historic heat wave to the highest level for the month in more than 10 years, advocates said.
Rebecca Spiess
/
Cronkite News
Volunteers from the group No More Deaths leave water in the desert for migrants in 2018. The number of migrants who died in the desert spiked during July’s historic heat wave to the highest level for the month in more than 10 years, advocates said.

Migrant deaths desert spiked in July in the Arizona desert as temperatures hit record highs.

Advocates and medical officials say the remains of 42 undocumented individuals were found – the most for that month in more than a decade.

Heat exposure was listed as the primary cause of death for 22 of those victims. July was the hottest single month on record for southern Arizona.

Despite the July surge, the group Humane Borders, which tracks migrant deaths, says 2023 does not appear to be on pace to set a record for the year.

An estimated 109 deaths were recorded for the first seven months of 2023.

They say that’s lower than the number of deaths recorded at the same point of the year in 2020, 2021 and 2022 when total deaths for the entire year approached record levels.