The U.S. Department of Justice will allocate $848,000 to southern Arizona communities to help identify human remains found near the U.S.-Mexico border.
The funding is meant to ease costs on medical examiners in the state’s border communities who are tasked with recovery and identification of migrants who fall victim to the desert elements.
The Missing and Unidentified Human Remains Program supports reporting, transportation and forensic testing and also increases staffing for DNA analysis to identify migrants and others.
Arizona Congressman Raúl Grijalva said he hopes it’ll help bring closure to families who are grieving the loss of a loved one.
He also called for humanizing border management and addressing the root causes of migration to prevent dangerous desert crossings.
According to the National Missing and unidentified Persons System, there are more than 2,000 unidentified people in Arizona, with more than half of them in Pima County.