This post is also available in: Español (Spanish) The Missing Migrant Hotline is now discontinued. However, our goal is to provide information on how to do your own search and other resources that are available to you. For someone potentially lost in the desert now: Is this a search-and-rescue situation—an emergency where the person is currently lost in the desert and their most recent communication was in the last three days?
If you are still in contact with this person via telephone, advise them that the only way to trace their location exactly is for them to make a call to 9-11. Even then, it is not guaranteed that their location will be traced or a response will be mobilized. They should be advised that their call will alert enforcement agencies as well as the emergency response system. As well as, or instead of, calling 9-11 they should quickly give you as much information as they can on the phone about their current location and everything they remember about getting there. Advise them to conserve the battery life in their phone carefully and only move from their location if they feel confident it will better their situation: for example to a traveled road or water source that they can see. To locate someone who may be in detention:First Step: Call the consulate of the country of origin of the missing person. Call the one closest to the location where they attempted to cross. If that consulate doesn’t answer or is unhelpful, call others. You will need the full name and birth date of the missing person. Often the consulate will only provide information to an immediate family member such as a parent, sibling, spouse, or child.
Mexico The consulates of Mexico have a nationwide 24-hour hotline. To call from within the US dial 855-463-6395. To call from Mexico dial 001-520-623-7874. Guatemala Honduras The Dallas consulate is charged with looking into cases in Arizona. Nicaragua
El Salvador If you have access to a computer and internet, check the following online detainee locators.
Tips for using the online locators:
Next steps: It has been our experience that even after consulting the consulate and the online locators, we have been able to find missing persons in detention centers across the border by calling the U.S. Marshals, ICE offices or the detention centers directly. Call US Marshal’s to ask if your family member is in their custody. Remember that you have a right to know where your family member is, and they you do not need to respond to any questions about your status or location. For California: dial (213-894-6820) For Phoenix arizona: dial (602) 382-8768 (then press 0) For Tucson arizona: dial (520) 879-6900 (press 0) For Texas: dial (713) 718-4800 Call ICE offices to ask if your family member is in their custody. Remember that you have a right to know where your family member is, and they you do not need to respond to any questions about your status or location. National ICE number: (888) 351-4024 For California: (213) 830-7911 For Arizona: (602) 766-7030 For Florence Arizona: (520) 868-8383 For Eloy Arizona: (520) 464-3000 For Dallas Texas: (214) 424-7800 For Houston Texas: (281) 774-4816 For El Paso Texas: (915) 225-1901 For San Antonio Texas: (210) 283-4750 If your loved one is a mother traveling with children through Texas, call the Karnes County Residential Center at (830) 254-2000 Please click here for a list of Detention Centers. To search for a minor: Call the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) at 1-800-203-7001 seven days a week, between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. E.S.T. A family member must call this number and leave a message with the information about the minor they are looking for. They will receive a call back from the minor if they are in custody. The full process is the following:
Instructions for locating someone who may have passed away while crossing: Although it is very sad to say, in our experience we have learned that if your loved one has been missing for more than one month, it is likely time to begin the process of searching for them through the forensics system. We are so sorry that your loved one is missing and you fear that they may have passed away. Here is information for groups who help families search through the forensics system. Click here to contact the Colibri Center for Human Rights. This group does forensics interviews and helps families search the forensic systems all across the border, although focused in Arizona. When you call, leave a message and they will get back to you to begin the process. Please be aware that they have a heavy caseload at the moment and it can take approximately 4 weeks for them to be ready to call back. Click here to contact the South Texas Human Rights Center for cases in South Texas. Additionally, if you would like to contact offices of medical examiners directly, here are phone numbers to do so. In California: San Diego County Medical Examiner (858) 694-2895 For Arizona: Pima County Medical Examiner (520) 724-8600 For El Paso: El Paso County Medical Examiner (915) 532-1447 For Laredo Texas and surrounding areas including Brooks County and Falfurrias Texas: Webb County Medical Examiner at (956) 722-7054 For the southern tip of Texas only, Mcallen: (956) 292-7014 For the southern tip of Texas only, Brownsville: (956) 389-1920 These two numbers are usually for drownings and river deaths, for those who have already begun to walk and advanced inward into Texas, the more appropriate number would be Webb County, which is again (956) 722-7054 If your family member sadly does not appear in the system after a few weeks of searching, we recommend beginning to ask about the process of DNA sampling. Colibri and the South Texas Human Rights Center may be able to help you in this process. Additionally, you may contact the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF, for it’s name in Spanish). They may be especially helpful to work with if close family members of the person who passed away are living outside of the US. This organization takes DNA samples from people all over the world and is not connected to any government body. For the New York office call 718-237-2028 |