Humanitarian group combs the desert in search for missing migrants

The Armadillos Search and Rescue is a volunteer-based non-profit organization group, based out of Vista, Calif. The groups travel twice a month to the Arizona and California deserts in search of missing migrants during their journey into the United States. The journey takes about ten days for migrants from the moment they cross the border.

“We know that this desert is a human carpet because there are human remains scattered everywhere here,” said Cesar Ortigoza, President of Armadillos Search and Rescue.

More than 30,000 migrants have gone missing in the Sonoran desert, that’s according to Colibri Center for Human Rights. This past weekend, the mission for the Armadillos was to search for the remains of a woman who was last heard of three months ago.

“That day we found so many people who were either alive or dead, honestly it was sad. There are many families that think people have forgotten about them, but sometimes they don’t even know that their loved ones have crossed or in some cases, simply have died out in the desert,” said Robert Resendiz, Vice-President of Armadillos.

In the last year, the group has come across seven remains in different locations throughout both Arizona and California. Once the group finds remains the Armadillos then write down the GPS coordinates that are sent to the local County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities then come to retrieve the bodies.

“You have to have a lot of heart for this work and that’s what all the members in the organization have proven, that they have the heart and that they’re willing to help in any situation,” said Ortigoza.

Being migrants themselves, the group hopes that one day they will live in a world where the group wouldn’t have to exist anymore.

“I hope that one day we can unite as citizens of Mexico, El Salvador, Niagara, and Honduras. All of these countries that have had bad governments for a long time. I think that’s when we will see a finish to all these deaths in the desert, that people have a way of living in their own countries. That’s when we’ll stop coming as Armadillos, that’s when Armadillos won’t exist anymore, which will be a good thing,” said Ortigoza.

The Armadillos solely rely on financial contributions from the community in order to carry out searches. If you would like to support the group, you can check out their Facebook page at Armadillos Busqueda y Rescate.