Category Archives: Human Rights, Migrant Death

Talking about the project itself

Ready, Set, Go!

Human Rights, Migrant Death

Today was our first day at Texas State University doing skeletal analyses. Like last year, we were stationed at the Osteological Research and Processing Laboratory (ORPL), working with Dr. Kate Spradley and her graduate students. This laboratory is one of three labs at the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State (FACTS). ORPL is used for forensic anthropology casework and processing bodies that get donated to the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility (FARF), an outdoor decomposition research facility at Texas State.

Photo of the Texas State Osteological Research and Processing Laboratory
ORPL

We started off the day with a meeting, where we discussed the progress that had been made since our last visit. The conversation was filled with talk about dead ends, road blocks, and frustration all around, but the progress that they did make over the year kept everyone hopeful and motivated. This time there are less Texas State students around than we thought there would be. Unfortunately, we came during finals week, so many of the Texas State students are busy studying for exams.

Once the meeting was over, we split up into two skeletal analysis teams: the UIndy Team and the Texas State Team. Before we started, we set up a few different workspaces. We had our main table where we laid out the remains for skeletal analysis. We also had a clean table to set up all of our paperwork and another table where we could take measurements on the bones. Finally, we had a photography station to take pictures of the bones. We decided that the best strategy was to divide and conquer. We split up all the tasks that needed to be done for the analysis and went to our separate stations. We used this same strategy last year, so we were able to fall back into our routine pretty easily.

Beyond Borders Team Members looking through paperwork laid out on a clean table

I felt like we did a good amount of work today and hopefully the rest of this week will go just as well. As we ended the day and started packing up our supplies, we noticed something moving just outside the lab. I forgot to mention it before, but ORPL is actually located on a ranch. Outside of the lab, a few cows were walking near the building. Justin and I stopped what we were doing and headed outside to try and say hi to our new friends. Unfortunately, cows walk a lot faster than you think. We lost them and headed back to the lab. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Cows outside the Osteological Research and Processing Laboratory on the ranch it is located on
The cows!

–Amanda

“Information Overload”: Background

Human Rights, Migrant Death

I’ve been away from the blog for a while, but I’ve been working in and with Brooks County since August. I learn more about the crisis every day, and I figured I would use this blogging season to share a few different components of the work we do regarding missing persons at the South Texas Human Rights Center (STHRC) and at Operation Identification at Texas State University. Trying to explain everything at once is extremely complex, so I will try and break down different steps in a series of blog posts that will follow this one.

For this post, I’ll share some background information. For the past nine months I’ve been working at the South Texas Human Rights Center as the Forensic Anthropology Fellow. Currently, I am working at Dr. Kate Spradley’s lab at Texas State University working as the coordinator of the Missing Persons Unit at Operation Identification. Despite the change in physical location, the job nearly remains the same: to facilitate the investigations of persons missing on the Texas-Mexico border.

Given the broad scope of the job, every day is different. Some days are spent completely at the computer, making phone calls and working with the inbox of my email to make sure that the right people know about people who are missing; sometimes I’m emailing a medical examiner, other times I’m on the phone with an Arizona NGO to get intricate details about the circumstances around the disappearance of someone. Other days are spent bouncing between offices, trying to figure out what works well and what needs improvement so that we can find people faster. I’ve spent some afternoons being the go-between for families who are scared to talk to law enforcement but need to find out about their loved ones. And more recently, I’ve spent a morning or afternoon with Dr. Spradley and Dr. Tim Gocha analyzing the skeletal remains of unidentified persons that were exhumed on our first two trips a few years back.

I’ve learned so much over the past nine months. I’ve seen success stories and horror stories. And if there is one pattern that I’ve recognized, it’s that success only occurs through collaboration, communication, transparency, and respect. It is my intention with my next four blog posts to show that not one part of the story is any more important than another. The volunteers who take the missing persons calls are just as important as the DNA analysts, who are just as important as the anthropologists analyzing bones and the undergraduate volunteers cleaning and organizing the clothing found with the bones. Not any single individual, organization, or agency is more important than any other.

In my next post, I will discuss Finding Missing Persons: Recent Cases and how the STHRC, in close collaboration with many organizations and agencies, saves lives of people lost in the brush, turning distress calls into rescues. Because we can’t find everyone, and because the STHRC has only been around for a few years, we are always looking for those who are still missing, and so I will then discuss Helping Families Find Their Loved Ones: Long Term Cases. The last two posts of the four-part series will touch on issues I think are not discussed enough. There are many misunderstandings about the identification process, and so I will write about the Investigations of Unidentified Persons: What is an Identification? Finally, I will end on a topic that I personally believe is the least frequently discussed yet most difficult and complex process to understand, Getting Loved Ones Home: The Long Road of Repatriation.

When we first were asked to blog about our experiences, we were told a great way to blog is to “give the reader a glimpse of how you feel and what you see”. Well, a great way to describe the past nine months would be to describe it as an “information overload”, so the next few posts will likely be just that.

Looking forward to seeing Team UIndy next week, and as always, thanks for reading!

~Ryan

Updates: The Humanitarian Respite Center at Sacred Heart Church

Community, Human Rights, Migrant Death
Toiletry donations for the Humanitarian Respite Center in a box
Donations for the Humanitarian Respite Center

We spent just a few hours at the Humanitarian Respite Center at Sacred Heart Church in McAllen, TX back in June. Yet, we will never forgot our time there.  Hundreds of tired, hungry and broken migrant refugees come through their doors weekly and the volunteers never skipped a beat.  Through the sadness they witness daily they keep smile and hope on their faces. What started as a temporary response to the influx of migrant refugees across the border has been going for over a year.  Sister Norma Pimentel and her volunteers provide assistance and a place to rest for men, women and children along their journey.  Their ability to provide food, clean clothing, baby supplies, toiletries and humanitarian aid is based solely on donations and volunteers.  We view their donation request list frequently to see what supplies are needed. This month we noticed a need for toiletries and began collecting items.  Many people do not donate to various causes because they think their contributions are too small. We have learned over our course of working with the humanitarian crisis on the border, that many small contributions can make a huge difference. So please consider a donation of new or gently used items or a monetary contribution.

A request on Facebook for the Humanitarian Respite Center for volunteers stating upwards of 60 migrants would be arriving at the center
Daily requests for the Humanitarian Respite Center for volunteers

If you live near McAllen, TX or can travel there for a few days please consider volunteering.  You can keep up with their needs on their Facebook Page where they post daily how many refugees are arriving.  Sister Norma and the Humanitarian Respite Center were recently acknowledged by Pope Francis for their selfless acts of courage and aid in the face of this crisis. Please click on the red shaded words in this passage for links to more information.

A society will be judged on the basis of how it treats its most vulnerable members