At least 1,100 immigrants died attempting to cross the Rio Grande on the Texas-Mexico border from 2017 through 2023. The majority of deaths occurred in the border counties of Val Verde, Maverick, and Kinney.
Border Vigil in Eagle Pass was created to mark those deaths and pay tribute to the deceased at monthly vigils held in Shelby Park — a public park along the banks of the Rio Grande that served as ground zero for the State of Texas’ border crackdown.
Border Vigil co-founder Amerika Garcia-Grewal said many immigrant bodies found in Eagle Pass went unidentified due to several factors.
“No medical examiner, a poor county, and people didn’t have the training, they didn’t have the experience,” she said. “A body in our morgue that no one was asking about was easy to kind of be like, ‘We'll get to it, sooner or later.’”
Operation ID, a group out of Texas State University in San Marcos, conducts forensic work to identify and repatriate human remains found along Texas border counties.
They recently held training sessions with Border Vigil volunteers in Eagle Pass to help bring closure to families who lost their loved ones on the journey to the U.S.
Garcia-Grewal said identification efforts not only include DNA extraction and biometrics, but also sorting through personal effects and markers like clothes, scars, and tattoos.
“Our volunteers came in sometimes as early as five o’clock in the morning and were out there in the heat, with some of the worst smells you’ve ever smelled in your life, helping to bring closure to some of these families.”
The collaborative effort led to the recovery of 14 sets of human remains that still need to be identified.
The next vigil will be held on Aug. 4 at Shelby Park.
