U.S. Border Patrol agents found four bodies in the desert around Sunland Park, New Mexico, on Monday, two of about 20 deaths in the area in just over a month.
As temperatures along the border rise above 100 degrees Fahrenheit every day, dead bodies are discovered every few days in the desert, in the migrant smuggling area of ​​the New Mexico border just west of El Paso.
More: ‘La pérdida – The Loss’: Deadly Disaster at El Paso-Juárez Border
The Sunland Park Fire Department reported via an X-platform dispatch that the bodies found Monday afternoon were located in the desert between the 5600 block of McNutt Road and Bi-National Avenue, near the Santa Teresa border crossing on the U.S.-Mexico border.
The deaths are being investigated by the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office, the Sunland Park Police Department and the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator.
Opinion guest column: Border policy costs rise in El Paso and Juárez
The identities of the deceased have not been released, but they are believed to be illegal migrants. They are known to have died of heatstroke after becoming disoriented and lost in the desert after crossing the border wall.
According to a rough estimate of the number of reported cases, about 20 people have died in the Sunland Park area since late May. That includes three people who died on June 25 in the Rio Grande, on the Texas-New Mexico border.
This article originally appeared in the El Paso Times: U.S. Border Patrol finds 4 bodies as death toll rises in New Mexico desert
