Extreme Heat and The Border
The Texas/Mexico Border has become the international staging grounds for extreme heat and the violation of human rights. While temperature records were being broken in the summer of 2023, troopers on the Border were instructed to deny migrants water. In a moment of consciousness, one trooper became the whistleblower, justifying his action by explaining: “Due to the extreme heat, the order to not give people water needs to be immediately reversed … I believe we have stepped over a line into the inhumane.”
The deprivation of water from Border migrants is longstanding. In the 1990s, after scores of migrants’ bodies who had succumbed to heat were found, humanitarian groups began placing barrels of water along migrants’ pathways. Since this effort began, humanitarian barrels of water have gone “missing” and have been intentionally destroyed. It’s estimated that between 2012 – 2015, more than 3,586 gallon jugs of water were destroyed in southern Arizona. Life-saving water continues to go missing, most recently along the Texas Border.
This constitutes nothing short than a crisis of humanity; water is essential to human survival. As extreme heat becomes more severe and frequent and the Border remains a focal point for political battles, the poor, the desperate, and the voiceless are the collateral.
Help build awareness for policy change.
