Launched TUESDAY December 18, 2018 on www.zReportage.com Story #688 :: BORDERLESS: A JOURNEY OF PERIL :: PHOTOGRAPHY by RICHARD TSONG-TAATARII and TEXT by CHRIS SERRES for ZUMA Press: STORY SYNOPSIS: The Sonoran desert has become one of the fastest-growing gateways to the United States for undocumented immigrants and deadliest. While fewer people are crossing illegally, more are taking riskier and more dangerous routes and a higher percentage of undocumented border crossers are dying, a true journey of peril for those who are trying to increase a increasingly dangerous life in their homes in Mexico and Central America.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/ZUMA Wire

Nov 13, 2018 - Ajo, Arizona, U.S. - ''No quiero regresar a Guatemala,'' said Maribel, a migrant from Guatemala after being detained by Border Patrol in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument which borders Mexico.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/ZUMA Wire

Nov 11, 2018 - Nogales, Arizona, U.S. - Three migrants from Mexico, two from Veracruz and one from Mexico City, make their way towards Arivaca after crossing into Arizona from Mexico. They will likely be picked up, tried, and deported unless they can make it by all the Border Patrol Agents who have several checkpoints nearby.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/ZUMA Wire

Nov 3, 2018 - Nogales, Arizona, U.S. - A US Border Patrol Agent checks the engine compartment of a freight train as it crosses the United States border. Stowaways are not uncommon. Checking every part of the train is part of the protocol as it passes through the border.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/ZUMA Wire

Nov 6, 2018 - Nogales, Arizona, U.S. - Border Patrol detained 7 migrants from Guatemala who crossed into the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. Those who get lost can easily become dehydrated and die. These migrants will be on expedited trial and deported to Mexico.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/ZUMA Wire

''Don't forget your family and your mother love you very much.''
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/ZUMA Wire

Nov 5, 2018 - Nogales, Arizona, U.S. - ANA MARIA SUAREZ of Michoacan, Mexico is comforted by her two-year old daughter BRIANA after they enjoyed a hot meal at the Comedor in Nogales, Mexico. They are seeking asylum and fleeing the cartel, which has threatened their lives.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/ZUMA Wire

Nov 3, 2018 - Nogales, Arizona, U.S. - FRANCISCO NAVARRO, 47 was delighted and emotionally affected by seeing his oldest sister GUADALUPE MONTANTOS ACUNA, 60, for the first time in his life. He lives in Phoenix, Arizona and drove to the border wall in Nogales, Arizona to meet his sister for the first time. She never came to live in the United States. On the right, sister ROSA NAVARRO, 50 reaches out to her granddaughter Avril, 8, who lives in Mexico. ''My heart is beating so fast,'' Francisco Navarro said after meeting his sister. ''I want to hug her but I can't. This wall separates people.'' Nogales, towns divided by the border.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/ZUMA Wire

Nov 5, 2018 - Tucson, Arizona, U.S. - ROOSEVELT ANTONIO SALINAS, 54, of Mexico, suffered deep cuts when the van that was carrying him and nine other migrants overturned in a desert canyon near Douglas, Arizona during a high-speed chase with the U.S. Border Patrol. One person was killed, and others were taken to a hospital in Tucson, Arizona before they were deported back to Mexico.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/ZUMA Wire

Nov 9, 2018 - Tuscon, Arizona, U.S. - Members of No Mas Muertes place water on trees in the Coronado National Forest near Arivaca for migrants moving through the area. A cross is placed to let the migrants know the water is safe to drink.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/ZUMA Wire

Nov 13, 2018 - Ajo, Arizona, U.S. - DINATH, a migrant from Escuintla, Guatemala hugs her two sons after being detained by Border Patrol in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument which borders Mexico.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/ZUMA Wire

Nov 7, 2018 - Tucson, Arizona, U.S. - Pima County Chief Examiner Dr. GREG HESS stands in the forensic lab where recently recovered bones of migrants found in the desert are being examined. There are more than 40 unidentified migrant bodies in the morgue in Tucson, AZ. Most of the migrants likely died crossing from Mexico. The Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner has received the unidentified remains of 2,816 undocumented migrants crossing the U.S.- Mexico border between 2000 and 2017. Many of the remains are so badly decomposed in the desert that they will never be identified. Humanitarian aid agencies say the deaths in the desert are the direct result of tightened border security, which has pushed migrants into harsher and remote conditions of the Sonora desert.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/ZUMA Wire

Nov 6, 2018 - Sasabe, Arizona, U.S. - A Mexican cowboy rounds up cattle on the Mexican side of the U.S./Mexico wall near the Sasabe Port of Entry.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/ZUMA Wire

Nov 13, 2018 - Sonoyta, Mexico - Ernesto L. who is staying at a shelter in Sonoyta Mexico is trying to get back to his wife and 9-year old daughter in the United States. He was deported after a raid in a Worthington, Minnesota meat packing plant 4 years ago.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/ZUMA Wire

Nov 11, 2018 - Nogales, Arizona, U.S. - JIM CHILTON II keeps guns throughout his home for protection. Sometimes migrants will come to his home and ask for water. He obliges but firmly tells them to move along. Chilton is firmly opposed to illegal immigration but shows kindness to migrants by also fitting his wells on his 50,000 acre cattle ranch with drinking spigots.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/ZUMA Wire

Nov 5, 2018 - Tucson, Arizona, U.S. - PEDRO GONZALEZ MORALES, (R) 65, of Mexico, suffered neck and shoulder injuries when the van he was in overturned. He buried his head in his hands and cried as he described the ordeal. PAULA MCPHEETERS, (L) a retired schoolteacher and humanitarian volunteer from Tucson, comforted him.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/ZUMA Wire

Nov 9, 2018 - Nogales, Arizona, U.S. - ADRIAN SANCHEZ (R) of Michoacan, Mexico looks to find his bed in a shelter in the town of Nogales, Mexico. He is accompanying his mother and sister who are all staying there. They are seeking asylum and fleeing the cartel, which has threatened their life.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/ZUMA Wire

Nov 13, 2018 - Ajo, Arizona, U.S. - DINATH (R), a migrant from Escuintla, Guatemala hugs her two sons after being detained by Border Patrol in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument which borders Mexico.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/ZUMA Wire

Nov 10, 2018 - Sasabe, Mexico - CARLOTTA WRAY (L) hugged Nila (R), a 26-year-old migrant from Guatemala, outside a migrant hostel in Sasabe, Mexico. Wray, who was born in Durango, Mexico, has been living near the border in Arivaca, Mexico for the past 30 years. Once a week, Wray loads up her sport-utility vehicle with food, water and desert survival kits, and delivers them to migrants living at makeshift compounds in Sasabe, Mexico. Without migrants, this would be a ghost town, she said of Sasabe. Wray delivers the supplies at a shady spot near an arroyo or desert wash, because many of the migrant compounds are controlled by local drug cartels and are too dangerous to visit. During a recent visit, Wray warned a crowd of migrants of the perils of crossing the desert. There is no water. There is no food, she warned the group of mostly male migrants. ''My heart is with you, but you must know that you can die.''
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/ZUMA Wire

Nov 3, 2018 - Nogales, Arizona, U.S. - On the right is Nogales, Several border cities in Arizona are literally divided by the wall. A battle between Mexico and the United States led to the first permanent wall in 1918.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/ZUMA Wire

Nov 6, 2018 - Sierra Vista, Arizona, U.S. - HENRY, 24, a farmworker from Guatemala who declined to give his last name, said he had been traveling four days and nights through the desert. He was seeking work in Florida before he was apprehended by Border Patrol agents in Brown Canyon, a remote area of the southwestern Arizona desert about 20 miles north of the U.S./Mexico border.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/ZUMA Wire