Amerika Garcia Grewal is a lifelong resident of Eagle Pass, Texas, and a volunteer with Operation Identification, a project that works to identify the bodies of migrants discovered along the U.S.-Mexico border. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The hope is to notify loved ones in their home countries and when possible, repatriate the remains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe body keeps the score,\u201d Grewal said, as she explained her work, which includes removing clothing \u201cto look for any identifying marks,\u201d including tattoos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Operation ID was formed at Texas State University in 2013 and uses both students and volunteers to aid border counties that have found themselves with a backlog of bodies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remains of migrants who might die from exposure or by drowning in the Rio Grande are often buried in county cemeteries or in the case of Maverick County, sometimes stored in a mobile morgue. The refrigerated trailer was originally used during the pandemic to hold the overflow of Covid victims. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The work requires specialized training in forensic analysis, given that the bodies can be in varying stages of decomposition when they\u2019re found. Each corpse is carefully examined and documented. Tattoos, scars and other identifying characteristics are photographed. Fingerprints are taken, as well as bone samples, to be used for DNA analysis. Personal items such as jewelry, clothing and backpacks are also recorded as clues to who the person might be or where the person came from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very intimate. It\u2019s very touching. And there\u2019s this hope that, you know, maybe this necklace, maybe this, you know, belonging, will help us connect this person to the people who love them,\u201d Grewal said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The work is constant, according to Courtney Coffey Siegert, a Texas State University postdoctoral scholar and an Operation ID team leader who supervises the field work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen the deaths increasing in different areas that have never experienced this before and that\u2019s alarming,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not only are Texas border counties running out of room to store the remains, but only two of them across the more than 1200 miles of the state\u2019s border have medical examiners on hand to handle death investigations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s gotten to the point where there are just so many people dying and not enough forensic services in the region to really accommodate this level of mass disaster,\u201d Siegert said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Operation ID helps to fill that gap by training civilian volunteers and other county officials like justices of the peace to do the forensic work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf it would not have been for Operation ID, I think that we would have been placed into a position where we would have really been at a greater emergency,\u201d Maverick County Judge Ramsey English Cant\u00fa said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though the number of illegal border crossing attempts \u2002had fallen to their lowest level<\/a> \u2014\u2002since President Joe Biden took office<\/a> \u2014 as of\u2002<\/a>September, Operation ID volunteers and coordinators said there\u2019s apprehension in the community over whether President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s threats of mass deportation and future immigration restrictions could potentially drive more migrants to make a push to cross the U.S. border before he takes office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Operation ID has made nearly 200 identifications out of more than 600 cases it has taken on. The project receives funding from grants provided by the Justice Department, while each county can pay for the services with funding from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s Operation Lone Star, known for sending Texas National Guard troops to secure the southern border. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Back at Operation ID\u2019s lab in San Marcos, still unidentified remains are processed to remove any soft tissue and scrubbed clean down to the bone. The skeletal remains are then examined for even more forensic clues such as past medical procedures or dental work that could provide additional information. Photos of personal effects are catalogued online through the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System or NamUs<\/a>. Families can search the site to see if they recognize any belongings. Finally, everything is placed in a box and labeled with an identification number. Siegert says the cases are often revisited. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re actively searching out ways to reinvigorate some of the older cases that we\u2019ve had where DNA has been submitted to all of the places it\u2019s been analyzed, and we still have no hit. That doesn\u2019t mean that there\u2019s not family out there still looking for answers. So we keep working.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The work constantly goes on in hopes of turning those identification numbers into names. Grewal adding, \u201cWe\u2019re doing it for the living. We\u2019re doing it so you know, the families that don\u2019t have closure, that don\u2019t know what\u2019s happened to their brother, their sister, their mother, their father, that they know where they are and that somebody cared about them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n