International Migration Review
Rescue Beacons and Migrant Deaths in Southern Arizona
2025-11-17
Since the mid-1980s, the US Border Patrol has positioned itself both as an enforcement agency and a provider of life-saving humanitarian assistance to migrants in distress. Over the past few decades — as the agency ratcheted up border enforcement — the number of migrant deaths along the US–Mexico border simultaneously increased. In response, the Border Patrol launched various humanitarian programs and initiatives, including deploying “rescue beacons” throughout the borderlands. These beacons are small towers that allow migrants to press a button and call for help. While the Border Patrol has championed these beacons as saving lives, there is no systematic evaluation of the relationship between rescue beacons and migrant deaths. This paper aims to better understand the Border Patrol's humanitarian activities and their effects by exploring the relationship between rescue beacons and migrant deaths in Pima County, Arizona from 2001 to 2022. Although the Border Patrol links rescue beacons to saving lives, this quantitative study finds little systematic evidence that the beacons reduce the discovery of recovered migrant remains in their vicinity.