CNN’s Alvarez: Deaths on Border This Year Have Risen by Nearly 200 from Last Year’s Record High

On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” CNN Reporter Priscilla Alvarez reported that, according to an official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, there have been 748 deaths along the U.S. southern border this fiscal year, an increase from the record 557 deaths recorded last fiscal year.

Alvarez stated, “This might be the deadliest year, the deadliest fiscal year. A Homeland Security official now tells me that, so far this fiscal year, there have been 748 deaths along the southwest border, and that is still with a month to go in the fiscal year. Now, to compare, last fiscal year, there [were] 557 deaths and 247 deaths in fiscal year 2020. Now, remember, migrants often pass through treacherous terrain, dangerous waters, and sometimes fall off the border barrier when crossing from Mexico to the United States. And that really came into focus last week when eight bodies were recovered from the Rio Grande in what was a mass drowning incident. Now, immigrant advocates say that it is U.S. border policies that sometimes lead migrants to take even riskier journeys, but U.S. Customs and Border Protection…has been grappling with a record number of migrants, and they pointed me to smugglers as some of those taking advantage of migrants, saying, ‘Smuggling organizations are abandoning migrants in remote and dangerous areas, leading to a rise in the number of rescues but also tragically a rise in the number of deaths.'”

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