Latest news with #Holeman
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Should you use AI for your retirement plan? Expert weighs in.
Listen and subscribe to Decoding Retirement on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Can artificial intelligence help you build a retirement plan and figure out how much to save or invest? The short answer is no, not yet, said Nick Holeman, director of financial planning at digital advisory company Betterment. "I would be cautious about using it for personalized financial advice right now," Holeman said in a recent episode of Decoding Retirement. "We're seeing a lot of traction with general financial education. In that case, it's a brilliant tool. It's really powerful. It can be really incredible. But using it for personalized financial advice, I don't think it's quite there yet." Holeman's caution is notable given that Betterment helped pioneer robo-advising. Founded in 2008 and launched in 2010, Betterment helped define the direct-to-consumer automated investing model that many firms later adopted. "We don't use AI for our financial advice currently," he said. "We're looking into it. We've seen a lot of promise, but it can act a little bit odd when you start to get into some really technical details." Read more: Retirement planning: A step-by-step guide AI "hallucinations" — confidently stated inaccuracies — are improving, he said, but they remain a concern. "Large language models weren't really built to do math," Holeman said. "We're seeing that get a little bit better as well, but still a little bit of concern there. So it's moving incredibly fast. I think we're not far away from it, but we're just not seeing that widespread adoption quite yet." Still, Holeman acknowledged that AI can be helpful for users who understand financial terms and prompt design. In other words, it can be empowering if you know the right questions to ask. "Prompt engineering is important, and it's worth exploring because many investors don't even know what to ask," he said. "Once you're dealing with terms like adjusted gross income or anything involving the IRS, it can get pretty complex." But he added that even savvy AI users and financial advisers would be wise to proceed with caution, especially given the potential tax changes on the horizon and the rapidly evolving political environment. In recent months, Holeman noted that Betterment advisers have witnessed increased client conversations about political uncertainty affecting investment decisions. "We are seeing an uptick in investors being nervous," Holeman said. "Our investors have been very well behaved with their retirement portfolio that we're not seeing mass panic or sellouts of their existing nest egg, but we are seeing them hold on to cash for a lot longer than usual." No matter how you proceed — with or without AI — Holeman encouraged people to "think like an engineer" when approaching financial decisions. Instead of defaulting to vague answers like "it depends," he urged people to identify clear inputs, calculations, and expected outcomes — an approach he said helps demystify and improve the consistency of financial advice. Got questions about retirement? Email Robert Powell at yfpodcast@ and we'll do our best to answer it in a future episode of Decoding Retirement. Each Tuesday, retirement expert and financial educator Robert Powell gives you the tools to plan for your future on Decoding Retirement. You can find more episodes on our video hub or watch on your preferred streaming service. Sign up for the Mind Your Money newsletter
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Yahoo
After El Paso joined Abbott's border crackdown, the number of dead migrants in the New Mexico desert surged
Editor's note: This story includes images of skeletal human remains found by volunteers in the desert. This article is co-published and co-reported with the Source New Mexico, an independent, nonprofit newsroom and affiliate of States Newsroom. SANTA TERESA, New Mexico — On a hot morning in September, after hours of trekking through the Chihuahuan desert, Abbey Carpenter and her partner James Holeman spotted a pile of scattered bones. Near a yucca plant, a human jawbone lay partially buried in the sand. Around it were vertebrae, femurs and ribs. Next to the bones, they saw a woman's purple underwear with two tiny hearts on the corner and a Salvadoran passport. The bones were among six sets of human remains they found that month. Carpenter and Holeman founded a volunteer group in 2020 called Battalion Search and Rescue to search for migrant bodies in this patch of desert just west of El Paso. They took photos and recorded the coordinates on their cell phone. They tied a pink ribbon to a nearby branch. Later, they mailed the passport to the Salvadoran consulate and reported the body to the Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office in New Mexico — even though the sheriff sometimes doesn't respond and has accused volunteers of planting bones in the desert. Since September 2023, the group has found 27 sites with human remains in the desert, Holeman said. 'How did we get to this place as a country that we think so poorly of migrants?' Carpenter said during a recent search in the desert. Historically, Border Patrol's El Paso sector — which includes all 180 miles of New Mexico's border with Mexico and 84 miles of El Paso and Hudspeth counties in West Texas — has had among the fewest migrant deaths across the southern border. That changed in late December 2022, according to an investigation by The Texas Tribune and Source New Mexico, when the city of El Paso joined forces with Gov. Greg Abbott to participate in his signature border mission, called Operation Lone Star. By 2024, the El Paso sector had become the deadliest place for migrants to cross along the entire U.S.-Mexico border. From January 2023 to August 2024, 299 human remains were reported in the El Paso sector, the most of any sector along the southern border, according to the most recent data available from federal government data. That's more than double the number of cases reported during the 20 months prior, when 122 remains were recorded before El Paso had adopted Operation Lone Star. Since El Paso joined Texas' border mission in 2022, migrant remains discovered in the El Paso sector have increased every year, even as they have declined in every other part of the border. 'We have people dying in New Mexico deserts because of Texas policies,' said New Mexico state Rep. Sarah Silva, a Democrat from nearby Las Cruces. Though many factors determine where and when someone crosses an international border — including federal immigration policies, organized crime and natural disasters — experts and advocates say any policy that pushes migrants into the desert will likely cost lives. Immigrant rights groups and researchers say more migrants are taking deadlier routes to enter the country since Texas launched Operation Lone Star in 2021 — flooding the border with state troopers, National Guard and miles of razor wire — as the federal government's ever-changing immigration policies have delayed or blocked migrants who want to claim asylum in the U.S. 'Any state lawmaker or local leader should be aware that these policies come at a human cost,' said Aimée Santillán, a policy analyst at the Hope Border Institute, an immigrant rights advocacy group in El Paso. 'So anyone that decides to approach this type of enforcement is making a decision that they can live with these deaths.' Meanwhile, bodies lie in the desert, unidentified, for months at a time. Eight months after Carpenter and Holeman's group reported the set of six remains to authorities, many of the bones were still there. It remains unclear how New Mexico state and local officials intend to address the need for more resources to retrieve and identify the bodies. The striking increase in deaths in the New Mexico and West Texas desert is part of a global surge in migration. According to United Nations statistics from 2024, the number of immigrants worldwide has doubled since 1990, with 304 million people living in a country other than the one in which they were born. Last year was also the deadliest on record for migrants worldwide, according to the UN's International Organization for Migration. 'The rise in deaths is terrible in and of itself, but the fact that thousands remain unidentified each year is even more tragic,' said Julia Black, coordinator of IOM's Missing Migrants Project. Neither the Trump administration nor elected officials from Texas or New Mexico have addressed the issue, even as the number of bodies discovered has skyrocketed. Abbott's office blamed former President Joe Biden's 'open-border policies' for the loss of life when asked for comment. 'The heartbreaking increase in deaths is the direct result of the chaos President Biden unleashed on the border,' said Andrew Mahaleris, Abbott's press secretary. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham also laid the blame on the federal government. 'While state officials are sometimes called upon to respond to emergencies, immigration remains a federal responsibility. Gov. Lujan Grisham has consistently called on every administration — Trump, Biden, and now Trump again — to fulfill federal obligations at the border and provide adequate resources for humanitarian and law enforcement efforts,' her spokesperson Jodi McGinnis Porter said in an email. Holeman, 67, started volunteering with a search and rescue group in 2018 named Aguilas del Desierto — which is Spanish for 'the Desert Eagles.' Holeman, a retired Marine veteran, said that as part of his military experience, he saw other countries returning dead American soldiers back to their families. He recognized the U.S. government doesn't provide the same benefit to the families of migrants, so he wanted to help fill this gap. He and Carpenter, 60, chose the New Mexico-Mexico border because it's an area where groups in California, Arizona and Texas don't come to regularly. They named the group Battalion Search and Rescue, named for St. Patrick's Battalion, an Irish immigrant military unit that defected from the U.S. to fight with the Mexicans in the U.S.-Mexico War. Once a month, a group of self-trained volunteers scours the desert for lost and missing migrants. The goal is to help save lives when they can, but for those who can't be saved, they hope to provide closure for families who want to be reunited with their loved ones and given an opportunity for a proper burial. 'We're just trying to fill a gap where the government is falling short,' Holeman said. Among those whom the group has helped reunite with family is Ada Guadalupe López Montoya of El Salvador, who died at the age of 33 last year. The last time her family heard from her, López Montoya was in Ciudad Juárez, preparing to cross the border into El Paso — her second attempt to enter the United States. When she stopped responding to her family, they called the Armadillos Search and Rescue, a San Diego-based humanitarian group. Cesar Ortigoza, 51, who co-founded that rescue group, called Holeman in New Mexico to ask if their group had found López Montoya, who had been reported missing since July 2023. Holeman searched his records and found that he had come across her passport, located next to human remains in September. Two months later, Ortigoza flew to El Paso, drove to Santa Teresa, New Mexico, and hiked 3 miles to the site. He called the Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office to report that the remains may belong to López Montoya, whose family had been searching for her for over a year. The Sheriff's Office sent officials from the New Mexico Office of Medical Investigator, who arrived about eight hours later to recover the remains. 'As an immigrant myself, it's important that families know what happened to their loved ones,' Ortigoza said. Countless other families are still waiting for news of relatives who have disappeared while crossing the border. Some turn to Facebook, creating groups titled 'Desaparecí cruzando la frontera,' Spanish for 'I disappeared crossing the border,' with fliers depicting loved ones. Among them is 41-year-old Laura Tavares Vazquez of Guanajuato, Mexico. For nearly three years, her family has repeatedly posted a flyer with the coordinates of where she was last seen near Santa Teresa. Tavares Vazquez, who left her children behind, had called a relative from the desert to tell her she wouldn't make it, the family wrote in a post. She felt weak and had an unbearable thirst that kept her from walking. A group she was hiking with through the desert left her behind on June 11, 2022. 'That's when our nightmare began,' the family wrote on Facebook. 'It's such a hopeless feeling not knowing what happened to her, where she is, if she's okay, who has her and why, or where did they leave her behind.'. A relative, through a family spokesperson, declined to be interviewed, explaining that over the years, people have attempted to extort the family — offering to find Tavares Vazquez if the family pays an undisclosed amount of money. In March 2021, Abbott announced Operation Lone Star, a military mission to deter immigrants from crossing the Rio Grande illegally. As part of this multibillion-dollar mission, Abbott sent hundreds of National Guard soldiers and state troopers to different parts of the 1,200-mile Texas-Mexico border. At the end of fiscal year 2022, six months after the state border mission began, Border Patrol reported finding 651 bodies along the Texas-Mexico border, more than triple the total from just three years prior. Maverick County, home to Eagle Pass, quickly saw an increase in migrant bodies washing up onto the American side of the Rio Grande. In summer 2023, Abbott deployed a 1,000-foot barrier there, made up of buoys to block migrants from crossing the river. That same summer, Mexican authorities reported a migrant had been found dead — stuck to one of the floating orange spheres. The number of migrant bodies discovered on the riverbank of the Rio Grande in Maverick County jumped from 51 in 2021 to 132 the following year, according to data compiled by Stephanie Leutert, the director of the Mexico Security Initiative at the University of Texas at Austin and a former State Department official under Biden. El Paso, a binational Democratic stronghold, resisted for more than a year issuing a disaster declaration that would have resulted in joining Operation Lone Star, in part because officials disagreed with Abbott's military approach. That changed toward the end of 2022, when thousands of migrants crossed the border from Juárez into El Paso, forcing the county and city to scramble to find enough shelter space for those sleeping on the streets after Border Patrol processed and released them. Texas border cities and counties were incentivized to join the border because they would get state funding and other resources. By joining Operation Lone Star, then-El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser hoped to get state-sponsored buses to transport migrants out of the city and take the pressure off the overflowing shelters. Abbott quickly sent state police and National Guard soldiers to El Paso and rolled out miles of concertina wire on the banks of the Rio Grande between El Paso and Juárez. The soldiers also began firing pepper balls, a chemical irritant, at migrants to deter them from crossing the river. Sophia Genovese, an attorney with the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, said last fall she represented a man in his 30s who was deported to Mexico and later crossed the Rio Grande from Juárez into El Paso. She said the man, who had grown up in Tennessee, tried to explain to soldiers that he was seeking asylum and wanted to surrender to Border Patrol agents. The soldiers, Genovese said, shot him with rubber bullets. He was eventually able to get past soldiers and turn himself into Border Patrol, Genovese said. 'We're really concerned. We've had clients in the past who enter through the El Paso port of entry, or near the El Paso port of entry, who are being subjected to really intense violence by the National Guard,' she said. 'Texas is very keen on participating in those enforcement operations. We're going to see more loss of life.' Leeser declined to comment. El Paso City Council member Josh Acevedo, who has opposed the city's participation in Operation Lone Star, said the effects of the border mission in this area should serve as an example that this type of enforcement causes more harm than good. He said Abbott should collaborate with New Mexico in preventing these deaths. 'But how do you get the governor of Texas, who is full of theatrics and lacks solutions, to be collaborative?' he said. Adam Isacson, a regional security expert at the Washington Office on Latin America, said smugglers take advantage of such clampdowns on the American side, making promises to vulnerable people, who are desperate to enter the U.S., that they can guide them around the blockades for a fee. 'The use of New Mexico in particular, really seems to have increased when Operation Lone Star put more people on the line, and it was just harder to turn yourself in the El Paso city limits,' he said. The trend has repeated itself for decades across the southwest border under Democratic and Republican administrations. 'The prediction is that with traditional entry and smuggling routes disrupted, illegal traffic will be deterred, or forced over more hostile terrain, less suited for crossing and more suited for enforcement,' according to a Border Patrol plan from 1994 signed off by Doris Meissner, the former commissioner of U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. In 1993, El Paso Sector Border Patrol Chief Silvestre Reyes launched Operation Hold the Line, which at the time used a novel approach to deter illegal immigration in the popular crossing point: a visible blockade of Border Patrol agents spaced along the border with Juárez. The approach sent apprehensions plummeting by 76% by the end of fiscal year 1994 in the sector. The Clinton administration decided to try it in the San Diego sector, which at the time accounted for 42% of apprehensions along the southern border. But the new vigilance in San Diego and El Paso quickly shifted the migrant flows to the Tucson sector in Arizona, which saw apprehensions increase by nearly 600% between 1992 and 2004, according to Border Patrol data. Migrants increasingly looked for other places to cross, and that often led them through remote terrain where they could easily run out of water and die of dehydration. A 2009 congressional report found that these operations led to more deaths in rural areas of the border. 'One unintended consequence of this enforcement posture and the shift in migration patterns has been an increase in the number of migrant deaths each year; on average 200 migrants died each year in the early 1990s, compared with 472 migrant deaths in 2005,' the report said. Meissner, who is now a senior fellow and director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the nonpartisan think tank Migration Policy Institute, has said she regrets this strategy because of the increase in migrant deaths. 'The Border Patrol expected that there would be crossings in areas that were more dangerous. They didn't expect that it would be in the numbers that ultimately materialized. Migrants are in desperate circumstances, they make desperate choices,' she said in a 2019 interview with The New York Times. It's nearly impossible to determine how many people have died trekking through the desert. In part because bodies will deteriorate over time if they're not found. Congress requires Border Patrol to collect data on how many migrants have died. But the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that the Border Patrol 'has not collected and recorded, or reported to Congress, complete data on migrant deaths.' Bryce Peterson, a volunteer and researcher with No More Deaths, an Arizona search group, said such groups have taken on the responsibility of collecting data because the federal government isn't doing its job. 'Things like the El Paso sector migrant death database are really filling in for what should be a government function, but government has failed miserably at it,' he said. As deaths continued to increase year after year, New Mexico's border counties and state agencies have been unprepared for the task of finding and collecting migrants' bodies — or unwilling to tackle it. New Mexico's 180-mile border with Mexico is rural Chihuahuan desert, and the rough terrain should be a deterrent for many, said Michael Brown, a Luna County Sheriff captain, who has found migrant bodies. But with the border crackdown in Texas, Brown said his state needs to prepare itself because he expects more immigrants crossing through. 'The [New Mexico] governor is going to have to come to the realization that this is something that potentially could happen,' he said. 'The federal government is going to have to realize that they've created a vacuum. They're going to have to deal with this eventually themselves.' In a statement, a spokesperson for the governor's office said State Police perform more than 100 humanitarian rescues each summer in response to reports, demonstrating her office's commitment to preserving life 'regardless of circumstances.' But the governor's office did not address questions about whether officials have a plan to search for, identify and repatriate remains when local or federal officials won't. More than one in four bodies found in New Mexico since 2021 is unidentified, according to an Tribune and Source analysis. In Texas, just under 7% of the people found in that period are unidentified. Lujan Grisham's office did not respond to a question about why that might be, though a spokesperson said that sites where bodies are discovered are often potential crime scenes. As a result, proper investigative protocols must be followed before repatriation can occur. In Texas, counties spend an average of $13,100 per case to collect, investigate and bury remains, according to a May 2020 University of Texas report. Though, some border counties have taken shortcuts to reduce that cost, such as not ordering an autopsy or DNA test, the report says. In New Mexico, the medical investigator's office said it has not tracked migrant deaths in the past because the number of bodies was so low. But with the recent increase in remains being found, the state will need to address the issue soon by hiring more medical investigators to avoid a backlog that would delay the identification process, according to a research article by New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator. New Mexico Sen. Crystal Diamond, R-Elephant Butte, who sponsored a failed bill in the last legislative session that would have appropriated state funds to help with humanitarian efforts, said border counties in the state need help addressing the large increase in deaths at the border. 'I think what people don't want to talk about is the cost of the humanitarian efforts, and it is the counties bearing that weight,' she said. McGinnis Porter, the governor's spokesperson, said in a statement that another challenge is that migration patterns are complex and ever-changing, 'driven by multiple factors, with cartels and human trafficking organizations choosing routes and drop-off locations that change frequently.' 'Any loss of life is a tragedy, and our hearts go out to the families of those who have died crossing into New Mexico,' McGinnis Porter added. Meanwhile, Doña Ana County, which is immediately west of El Paso, has 10 field deputy medical investigators — the most of any county in New Mexico — but 'they may be overwhelmed by the increased numbers of deaths,' a medical investigators' research article says. Carpenter and Holeman say that they've called the Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office to report remains they've found. But her office has told them they don't have deputies to respond, they said. Doña Ana County Sheriff Kim Stewart has said that bodies found in her jurisdiction are not her priority. She has also dismissed Carpenter and Holeman's efforts, saying she believes they are spreading misinformation and planting bones. She has also suggested the volunteers are discovering prehistoric bones. Stewart's office did not respond to requests for comment. 'I don't know where they come from. I don't know how long they've been there. I don't know if they've been planted there,' she told KTSM, a local TV station. 'If [the volunteers] are not going to stand by until we arrive, because [they] are too busy roaming the desert looking for I don't know what, we're not going to take these very seriously.' Longtime rancher Nancy Clopton is still haunted by the sight of a dead woman she found on her property years ago. Clopton was tending to the water tank for her cattle in the New Mexico desert 100 miles west of El Paso. Temperatures in that stretch of desert near Hachita hit 110 degrees that week in 2021. She walked along the curved edge of the 50,000-gallon steel tank and was startled to see a person, dressed in camo, seated on its concrete skirt. She couldn't quite make out the person's face, but she guessed she was looking at a young woman. 'I yelled at her several times and got fairly close, maybe from here to that fence,' she said in a recent interview near her ranch, pointing about 20 feet away. 'She wasn't responding in any way, and I didn't feel comfortable going up and actually touching her or trying to do something. Because to me, it was fairly obvious that she was dead.' Clopton rushed inside and told her husband about the body and then called a contact at the Border Patrol. Soon after she led the agent to the water tank, a parade of border patrol agents, state troopers and medical examiners arrived. They interviewed her and collected the woman's remains. In the days following, an agent told her the woman was from Mexico, but that's all she ever learned about the woman, whom she still thinks about regularly. After authorities left, Clopton was unsure what to do with the woman's belongings and what she described as possible biohazards left behind. A crime scene cleanup company in El Paso told her it would cost up to $6,000 to clean the area. So she felt she had no choice but to take drastic action, she said. 'My husband took a bucket with five gallons of gasoline in it, and he lit it on fire,' she said of the woman's final resting place. Ranchers who raise cattle near the border wall said there is no protocol for who to call when they find a person's body, and they pointed to Clopton's experience as an example of how ranchers are left on their own to deal with the humanitarian crisis. They also echoed calls for better cell and radio tower infrastructure in the area. The woman Clopton found is Gabriela Ortiz Moreno, according to the autopsy report. She was 30 years old, from Mexico. Among her belongings was a notebook, jewelry and a pack of cookies. Whether her family ever learned of her passing is unclear. A spokesperson for the Mexican Consulate said that the information is confidential. Investigative summaries also suggest she was seeking shade at the water tank, because 'No rain or any type of cloud covering was available to the decedent,' an investigating officer wrote. 'It's terribly sad that people would be that desperate to come and that ill-prepared,' Clopton said. 'They really don't understand at all what they're facing. This is the Chihuahuan Desert.' Justin Hamel contributed reporting to this story. Disclosure: Facebook, New York Times and University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. Big news: 20 more speakers join the TribFest lineup! New additions include Margaret Spellings, former U.S. secretary of education and CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center; Michael Curry, former presiding bishop and primate of The Episcopal Church; Beto O'Rourke, former U.S. Representative, D-El Paso; Joe Lonsdale, entrepreneur, founder and managing partner at 8VC; and Katie Phang, journalist and trial lawyer. Get tickets. TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Army control of U.S.-Mexico border buffer zone may funnel migrants to 62-mile stretch of tribal land in Arizona
Emma PatersonCronkite News WASHINGTON – Some Arizona border officials have welcomed President Donald Trump's order for a military takeover at the U.S-Mexico border. But migrant advocates fear that by sealing hundreds of miles of border in the Southwest, the troops will effectively funnel migrants to far more dangerous crossing points. And environmentalists warn of damage to habitats that support nearly two dozen endangered species. 'Militarizing the border has historically only ramped up deaths,' said James Holeman, founder of Battalion Search and Rescue, a group of volunteers who hike through desolate regions of Arizona and New Mexico searching for remains of migrants who couldn't survive the desert. 'You're talking about vulnerable people that are making very deadly choices,' he said. On April 11, Trump ordered the military to take control of the Roosevelt Reservation – a 60-foot wide strip of federal land along the border from the Pacific Ocean to New Mexico. Turning the border into a military base would get around the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the military from engaging directly in civilian law enforcement. Migrants would be subject to military arrest for trespassing within the federal zone. That zone and Trump's order cover Arizona's four border counties – Yuma, Pima, Santa Cruz and Cochise – except for a 62 mile stretch of Pima County controlled by the Tohono O'Odham Nation. Holeman, among others, expects that gap to become an even bigger magnet for human trafficking. The tribe's ancestral lands span the border, and roughly 2,000 of 34,000 members live on the Mexican side. Tribal leaders declined opportunities to discuss the situation. Even before the military build-up to the east and west, the reservation was a hot spot for illegal crossings. The tribe's stretch of border is relatively flat. And it's secured with vehicle barriers and large-gapped cattle fencing that don't impede people, because the tribe refused to allow wall construction during Trump's first term. The Border Patrol operates from offices just outside the reservation. Tribal police work with federal authorities when they catch migrants, Mennell said, but response times can be long. As the military seals other parts of the border, the reservation will become a more attractive option, Holeman said, and smugglers will demand higher prices. 'Cartels have really taken over human trafficking,' he said. 'Crossing here is going to be more expensive. If you have thousands and thousands of dollars, they can drive you right in.' As of April 22, there were 10,281 troops assigned to the Southwest border – up from 2,500 before Trump's order, according to U.S. Northern Command. 'I welcome it. … Anything that can reduce the impact on taxpayer dollars in this county,' said Frank Antenori, a Cochise County supervisor. 'It's about time the federal government got serious about securing the border and protecting the citizens of this county.' Cochise, in Arizona's southeast corner, has a population of about 124,000, and its law enforcement and health resources have been stretched thin by illegal immigration, Antenori said. The day he was sworn in for a second term, Trump declared a national emergency at the border and ordered more military personnel and surveillance aircraft there. He expanded the effort with the April 11 order assigning the 'military missions of repelling the invasion and sealing the United States southern border from unlawful entry to maintain the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the United States.' Four days later, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced that his department would transfer control of 109,651 acres of federal land along the border to the Army for three years. 'The American people gave President Trump a mandate to make America safe and strong again,' he said in his announcement. Having more troops at the border will allow faster expansion of the border wall, along with more roads, lights and surveillance systems, according to John Mennell, acting branch chief for the Tucson sector of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. 'Whatever hasn't been done in the first term is getting done now,' he said in a phone interview. But there are critics in southern Arizona. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, whose department patrols Tucson and a vast stretch of borderland, said he's concerned that the expanded troop presence – along with Trump's immigration crackdown – will deter migrants from asking for help. 'There's fear out there that 'if I call 911, my family member or someone is going to be deported,'' he said. Nanos would prefer reform of immigration policies – such as providing an easier and more orderly way to become a citizen. Although officials elsewhere say undocumented migrants squeeze their budgets, Nanos said he hasn't seen that. 'Even if it did, isn't that our job?' Nanos said. 'We are here to protect people in this county. That's what we're here to do, no matter their status.' Environmentalists are concerned about the impact the extra troops and their equipment will have on Sonoran Desert ecosystems that are home to thousands of plant and animal species, of which 23 are endangered. The interior secretary said the troops' presence will actually help preserve delicate habitats and sites of archaeological importance. 'High-traffic illegal crossings can lead to soil erosion, damage to fragile desert vegetation and critical wildlife habitat, loss and damage to cultural resources, increased fire risk and pollution from trash and human waste,' Burgum said when he announced the land transfer to Army control. During Trump's first term, the federal government installed tall fencing along roughly a third of the U.S.-Mexico border. Before that, any barriers generally allowed animals to pass freely. Jaguars, ocelots, mountain lions, bears and other species whose ranges span the border have all been impacted, said Russ McSpadden, who leads campaigns for the Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection. Surveillance lights and increased vehicle patrols also disrupt species that call the region home, he said, and military vehicles will surely inflict more harm. 'The devastation was on a grand scale the first time around,' he said. 'These walls are being built in really sensitive ecosystems.' According to Defenders of Wildlife, the Sonoran pronghorn, the fastest mammal in North America, is endangered partly due to fencing. Only 160 remain in the U.S., plus 240 in Mexico. Trump's efforts to seal much of the border with troops comes despite big drops in illegal crossings. Arizona has seen a huge decrease since last fall. The drop has been especially sharp since Trump took office three months ago. At the current rate of decline, the total for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30 could be down 80 percent from the previous year. Even so, Battalion Search and Rescue found nearly 20 sets of human remains last winter. Much of the group's work is along the 'poor man's route' through the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, west of the Tohono O'Odham reservation – a trek through desolate and rugged terrain that avoids populated areas but claims many lives. 'This is where people go when they have the least amount of money, the least amount of options,' Holeman said. 'There is basically no water and it has the highest rate of apprehension. It has the highest risk and the lowest price.' For more stories from Cronkite News, visit
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Yahoo
ISP honors lieutenant, master trooper for leadership in Delphi investigation
During the 2025 Indiana State Police Annual Awards Ceremony, two members of the Lafayette District were honored for their work in the Delphi double homicide case. Superintendent Anthony Scott presented a Commendation Award to Lieutenant Jerry Holeman in recognition of his leadership and Master Trooper Brian Harshman was recognized for his commitment and sustained effort throughout the multi-year investigation into the Delphi double homicide. Holeman served as a primary investigative lead in the case surrounding the murders of Abigail Williams and Liberty German — an effort that spanned nearly eight years and demanded extensive coordination between law enforcement agencies at the local, state, and federal levels. His ability to manage teams, adapt to emerging developments, and remain focused under the scrutiny of national media coverage was essential in maintaining the investigation's momentum and integrity, according to a press release from the ISP. The case produced tens of thousands of tips and an immense volume of digital and physical evidence. Lt. Holeman worked tirelessly to ensure all avenues were explored while also fostering collaboration across jurisdictions. His clear-headed leadership helped guide the team through many challenges, the press release said. This commendation honors Lt. Holeman's unwavering dedication, resilience, and steady command presence, which brought credit to himself and the Indiana State Police throughout one of the most demanding investigations in the agency's history. For Harshman's valuable contributions, he has been awarded a certificate for exceptional meritorious service. Harshman worked in partnership with investigators from District 14 and the Special Investigations Division / Internet Crimes Against Children to support key aspects of the case involving the murders of Abigail Williams and Liberty German. Over the course of several years, he dedicated a significant portion of his time to analyzing and documenting sensitive materials linked to the suspect, which required detailed attention and discretion. His efforts helped maintain continuity within the investigation and added critical context during the trial preparation phase. By managing and organizing important records, he ensured that investigative leads and evidentiary details were preserved and accessible for review. This recognition honors Master Trooper Harshman's enduring professionalism, his contribution to the pursuit of justice, and his role in one of the most emotionally challenging cases faced by the Indiana State Police.
Yahoo
16-03-2025
- Yahoo
'An open graveyard': Skeletal remains lie unrecovered in New Mexico's borderlands
SANTA TERESA — The rosary hung from a branch of mesquite, its light blue beads swaying in the breeze. The site was a few miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. It wasn't far from paved roads, a truck stop, the city of El Paso. But amid the sand and shrubs — all of them too short, too scrawny or too dense to offer any shelter — the populated world seemed to melt away. The blue rosary marked a spot in the desert where searchers found an identification card. It spelled out a woman's name in thick black letters: Ada Guadalupe López Montoya, 33, born in El Salvador. A team of volunteers from Arizona-based Battalion Search and Rescue, which combs the borderlands of Arizona and New Mexico for lost and missing migrants as well as human remains, found bones nearby. Nearly two months later, many of the bones were still there. It's a troublingly common occurrence, said James Holeman, 59, a Silver City resident and one of the leaders of Battalion Search and Rescue, which organizes monthly searches. In just over a year, the organization found more than two dozen such sites in the Southern New Mexico desert — enough to make Holeman call the area 'an open graveyard' — and reported them to the Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office. The remains, believed to be those of migrants, would be among hundreds of migrant deaths logged in the El Paso region since 2008, including more than 300 in Doña Ana County. It's an area that has seen at least a hundred migrant deaths annually in recent years, according to humanitarian aid groups and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Bryce Peterson, a volunteer with the nonprofit No More Deaths who helps gather data used to map migrant deaths in the region — a total of 599 since 2008 and 176 in fiscal year 2024 alone — calls it the deadliest stretch of the southern U.S. border. Group searches for human remains in New Mexico's borderlands His group's El Paso Sector Migrant Death Database logged more than 80 sets of skeletal remains between 2008 and 2024, including dozens in Doña Ana, Luna and Hidalgo counties. Battalion Search and Rescue doesn't directly report its findings to No More Deaths' database, Holeman said, though its reports to OMI could be included in the source data. Holeman believes 'there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds more out there yet undiscovered.' He and other searchers say the local sheriff's office and the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator haven't done enough to collect, catalog and — to the extent possible — identify the remains they have discovered so far. They are deeply troubled by what they see as inaction by authorities to properly address the scattered human remains and raise concerns about whether the lives lost — those of migrants — are considered a low priority by state and local officials. 'Is there a distinction here between these bones and … Santa Fe bones?' Holeman wondered. Chris Ramirez, an OMI spokesperson, wrote in an email that field investigators and transport teams 'do their very best' to properly collect and convey remains to Albuquerque for postmortem medical examinations. But, he noted, the rugged, remote landscape and abundant wildlife pose challenges for the agency. Meanwhile, Doña Ana County Sheriff Kim Stewart, in an email to The New Mexican, acknowledged tension between her office and Battalion searchers. She takes issue with the group's methods, saying it 'has not been cooperative or very forthcoming with information' and has contributed to the 'contamination of these sites.' 'Battalion SAR is not a highly trained, reputable group,' Stewart wrote. 031125_MS_Border Bodies Search_002.jpg Abbey Carpenter stands in the knee-high desert shrubs under the noon sun in December as she searches for human remains in an area along the Mexico border in Santa Teresa. She also accused Battalion Search and Rescue of planting human remains in the Doña Ana County desert. 'Frankly, we don't know if a bone or bones have been brought from other locations and photographed after being deposited randomly,' she wrote. A journey ends in tragedy For Holeman, López Montoya's identification card was the latest in a string of grim discoveries. But it ultimately prompted OMI to collect some of the remains at the site, which the searchers believe may have been hers. After López Montoya went missing, her loved ones reached out to Armadillos Ni Un Migrante Menos, a California-based humanitarian organization that amplifies families' searches for missing loved ones online and searches for migrants' remains. Ada on Facebook Armadillos Ni Un Migrante Menos, a California-based humanitarian organization, posted a missing person flyer on Facebook featuring Ada Guadalupe López Montoya in July 2023. Missing persons posters are a regular sight on the Armadillos' Facebook page, as are photos and videos depicting human remains. Spectators cheer on the group from the comments section and express support for families, offering written condolences and prayer emojis. Armadillos posted a missing person flyer on Facebook featuring López Montoya in July 2023. Battalion Search and Rescue — which had found the site containing her identification, a cellphone and other personal items, along with a set of human remains in August 2024 — had learned of Armadillos' effort and saw the post about the missing Salvadoran woman. 'I heard about this missing persons thing,' Holeman said. He reached out to Cesar Ortigoza, the Armadillos' leader, and provided information about the Santa Teresa discovery. 'I said, 'This is your woman,' you know. … We found this two months ago. September, October, November. They didn't pick it up. It's still out there.' Ortigoza, 51, of San Diego was determined to ensure authorities properly responded to the report of human remains that could be López Montoya's; he booked a Nov. 15 flight to El Paso. He arrived at the Southern New Mexico site outside El Paso on Nov. 16 and notified OMI again about the remains, and waited for investigators to arrive. 'We were gonna stay there until [OMI] came over and picked them up. So that's what we did,' Ortigoza said, adding they showed up a few hours later. It took most of the day, he said, for the team to recover most of the site's remains. Ortigoza livestreamed a video of the operation on the Armadillos' Facebook page, something the group commonly does. He left the blue rosary in López Montoya's memory. 031125_MS_Border Bodies Search_007.JPG Rosary beads hang in December at the spot where Ada Guadalupe López Montoya's identification card was found alongside a cellphone and remains by Battalion Search and Rescue, which made the discovery in August. Her family tuned in to the live video and reacted with disbelief at López Montoya's personal effects, such as a pair of pants draped over a mesquite shrub. 'What did you do to get those — those belongings and put them there to make a video?' they asked Ortigoza on the live video. '[They] said that we had planted this — the evidence,' he said. The New Mexican had hoped to contact López Montoya's family members, but Ortigoza said they objected to the release of their information. López Montoya initially had no intention of crossing the border through New Mexico's desert corridor, Ortigoza said. The family's Facebook post, written in Spanish, noted she had planned to cross the border at Ciudad Juárez and go to El Paso. This was at least her second attempt to enter the U.S. — though her reasons for embarking on the journeys remain unclear. Documents from the First Court of Judgment in Santa Ana, El Salvador, allege she was the victim of human trafficking in 2012, when she and a person suspected of being a 'coyote' were stopped while trying to cross into Guatemala, with a final destination of the U.S. Her family had paid the alleged coyote, or border guide, to help her make the journey. Still, he initially faced a criminal charge of trafficking. The case ultimately was dismissed due to lack of evidence; López Montoya might have refused to testify, fearing she would become the target of criminal gangs in El Salvador for identifying the man. 031125_MS_Border Bodies Search_008.jpg A teddy bear is found on the desert floor under a shrub where volunteers with Battalion Search and Rescue searched for human remains in the desert near Santa Teresa in January. Her trek from El Salvador likely wasn't an easy one. Evidence suggests she was a victim of extortion along the way: Her family received a call saying she would be killed if they didn't transfer money, Ortigoza said. Migrants — particularly women — are often targeted for extortion, sexual violence and other crimes, said Gabriela Romero, an attorney with Derechos Humanos Integrales en Acción, a Ciudad Juárez-based organization that provides migrants with free legal representation. Romero said criminal groups have found profit potential in the extortion of migrants' families — especially relatives in the U.S. — making threats of torture, sexual violence and death of their loved one. As many as 6 in 10 migrant women face extortion in Mexico, said Miriam González Sánchez, a spokesperson for El Instituto para las Mujeres en la Migración, a Mexico-based organization that advocates for migrant women. Sexual violence, too, is on the rise against migrants, Romero said. Doctors Without Borders, a nonprofit that provides international crisis medical care, documented such a rise in a February 2024 report. Its teams in the border cities of Matamoros and Reynosa found a 70% increase in sexual assault consultations in the last three months of 2023 compared to the three months prior. January 2024's caseload was higher than in any month in 2023, the report said. But so few crimes against women end in a conviction, González Sánchez said. 'If you add the layer of being a migrant, it becomes a complete lack of access to justice for migrant women' in Mexico. Slow to collect 'field of remains' Battalion Search and Rescue maintains a binder of paperwork documenting each of its finds, noting the discovery date, GPS coordinates and descriptions of the remains. Volunteers mark each of the deaths they encounter with ribbons, affixing the pink strips to nearby foliage. Most searches lead the group to the same sight: an open expanse of desert floor with what the volunteers believe are human bones and personal items strewn about by scavenging and predatory wildlife. It's not unusual to find a 'field of remains,' said Abbey Carpenter, a Battalion Search and Rescue leader and Holeman's partner. 'You don't always find the whole body. It depends on the birds, the animals, the time,' she said. One particular field of remains was discovered in late August within a network of dirt roads, about 10 minutes by car from a Santa Teresa truck stop and a few miles as the bird flies from where López Montoya's belongings were found. Here, a hip bone. There, a scapula and clavicle. A dozen feet away, shards of vertebrae. And at the center of it all, a skull, missing its front teeth. The searchers affixed pink ribbons to shrubs near many of the bones before reporting the remains — and their GPS coordinates — to the Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office. The remains were still there in February. 031125_MS_Border Bodies Search_003.JPG James Holeman, co-founder of Battalion Search and Rescue, points to a femur and tibia bone in the desert near Santa Teresa along the Mexico border in December. Searches on Sept. 21 and 22 yielded several finds: 'about 10-12 rib bones in the area, jaw bone, other assorted bone fragments' in just one of the discoveries, according to the organization's reports, as well as hygiene items, women's clothing and a pair of small Nike tennis shoes. While most members of Battalion Search and Rescue aren't trained forensic experts, the search team does have a forensic anthropologist on staff to better help identify the age and gender of a set of remains. The expert also helps determine if remains belong to a person rather than an animal — though some skulls and desiccated anatomy are unmistakably human. The group kept a list of the eight cases it reported to the sheriff's office between late August and late October, but they don't believe the agency responded to most, if not all, of them. In February, Battalion filed a complaint against the sheriff's office with the New Mexico Department of Justice, citing the agency's lack of action. 031125_MS_Border Bodies Search_031.JPG Abbey Carpenter of Battalion Search and Rescue becomes emotional in December as she revisits a location near Santa Teresa where human remains were found and reported to authorities, but had yet to be retrieved. 'By not responding to our calls for service, DASO has created a dangerous public safety situation,' the group wrote in the complaint. Lauren Rodriguez, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice, wrote in an email to The New Mexican the agency has been in contact with the sheriff's office about the complaint and has determined it has 'a process in place' to handle requests in a way that balances 'the integrity of potential crime scenes and the consideration of possible archaeological remains.' She added, 'We remain aware of the situation and encourage continued communication among all parties to facilitate the identification of these remains.' The searchers contend, however, the agency isn't following a state law that details processes for people — including civilians — to report human remains and outlines how investigators must respond to the reports, with speedy action required from all parties. In the case of a death with an unknown cause, the law requires 'anyone who becomes aware of the death' to report it immediately. Once notified of a death, state medical investigators are required, 'without delay,' to 'view and take legal custody of the body.' 'This is a crime scene, and this is their job — and they're trained for it,' Carpenter said. 'When we can go back and find a femur, that's not a little bone. And so, just to sort of brush it off with, 'Oh, it's just part of the desert.' That's not good enough. They're professionals. This is their job. They're trained. They're paid for this.' 031125_MS_Border Bodies Search_013.jpg Human remains in the desert near Santa Teresa in January. Battalion Search and Rescue has discovered more than 200 sites with human remains in New Mexico and Arizona in the six years members have been searching. 'Treated as potential homicides' Stewart, the Doña Ana County sheriff, initially declined a request for an interview about Battalion Search and Rescue's allegations and human bones lying in the sand within her jurisdiction. But she later defended her agency, writing in an email her deputies follow a response process for reports of remains, one that includes detectives and crime scene technicians as well as state OMI personnel. Her office receives reports of skeletal human remains from U.S. Border Patrol agents and, less frequently, civilians, she wrote. 'Many times, the remains recovered are not complete skeletons and may be only partial remains such as ribs, leg or arm bones, skull, or only fragments of such bones. Either way the process remains the same,' Stewart wrote. She added, 'All human remains are treated as potential homicides until further investigation deems them otherwise.' The New Mexican requested copies of the office's reports pertaining to skeletal human remains found outside Santa Teresa from Aug. 30 through Oct. 20, 2024. In response, the agency provided a single 'unattended death' report from Sept. 23, 2024. The report and its supplements show a deputy, a detective and crime scene technicians, as well as OMI officials, responded to the reported remains, finding at least four bones — including 'a partial pelvis and backbone' that were 'verified to be of human origin.' Stewart voiced concerns about Battalion Search and Rescue's tactics, writing, 'the circumstances of how and when they came upon them are questionable at best.' 031125_MS_Border Bodies Search_016.jpg Abbey Carpenter finds a piece of identification on the desert floor as she searches for human remains near the Mexico border in Santa Teresa in December. The group does not immediately report remains to law enforcement, she argued, instead placing 'small marking flags' — the pink ribbons — and reporting the coordinates later via email. She also wrote the searchers do not provide adequate information for initial reports or guide deputies to the sites. Carpenter pushed back against the sheriff's accusations, arguing the organization provides sufficient information — including GPS coordinates and nearby roadways — to lead deputies to sites containing remains. 'I shouldn't have to wait at the site and guide them in,' she said. 'This is their jurisdiction, not mine.' At times, Stewart added, Battalion Search and Rescue has sent photographs of 'their own feet next to the bones,' which she wrote amounts to contamination of the sites. The sheriff also expressed dissatisfaction with the reports from Battalion, writing that some 'yielded nothing more than a few bones such as a femur and ribs or fragments of a lower jawbone.' Holeman dismissed the claims. ' She's just grabbing at straws,' he said of Stewart. 'She said so many insane things, right? She said that she talked to the [Bureau of Land Management], and these sites are prehistoric — they have braces on their teeth and they have IDs and clothing.' Carpenter noted it's unlikely many of the remains she and her team have found will ever be identified — but that doesn't mean documenting their existence and reporting their remains to authorities is meaningless. 'We're going to know that this happened on U.S. soil,' she said. 'Another person died — and this person has been counted.' 031125_MS_Border Bodies Search_018.jpg Volunteers with Battalion Search and Rescue search for human remains in the desert near Santa Teresa in January. 'Out of respect for the decedent' At times, Holeman said, Battalion Search and Rescue returns to a reported site of human remains to find rubber gloves — indicating a visit from New Mexico medical investigators. The trouble is, investigators don't always pick up all the remains, he said. At the site where López Montoya's belongings were found, for instance, he said, OMI left behind both unrecovered bones and medical investigators' rubber gloves in December. The OMI's Ramirez did not respond to The New Mexican's requests for information on the agency's investigation into the remains found near López Montoya's ID card. However, unlike Stewart, Ramirez expressed an interest in working more effectively with groups like Battalion and acknowledged difficulties investigators face when responding to reports of scattered remains in remote areas, where they have seen an increasing number of deaths. The agency is working to identify technology that would allow such volunteer search organizations to report accurate data about the location of possible human remains, Ramirez wrote in an email. 'OMI works diligently to collect all known pieces of human remains, both for a complete and thorough medical examination, and out of respect for the decedent and their family,' he wrote. Rugged terrain like that of the state's border with Mexico — where Ramirez said the office has seen a 'significant increase' in deaths in the past two years — can pose unique challenges. 'The field investigator and transport team do their very best, following certain protocols that they have trained on, to ensure all parts of a decedent are properly collected,' Ramirez wrote. But, he added, 'This geography of New Mexico is extremely rugged, sandy, filled with wildlife, and is often extremely difficult to access. Additionally, some decedents are found weeks or even months after their death often causing remains to scatter across the desert due to wind, floods, and wildlife.' 031125_MS_Border Bodies Search_014.jpg James Holeman of Battalion Search and Rescue examines personal belongings in the desert of Southern New Mexico along the border with Mexico in January. Pushed toward 'hostile terrain' López Montoya's belongings, and likely her bones, were found nearly 20 miles from El Paso, where her family believes she was headed. How did she end up in the desert scrub of Southern New Mexico? Part of the answer could lie in a decades-old Border Patrol policy. Officers patrol the remote desert region, but the large majority of the agency's personnel and surveillance systems are concentrated in urban areas. This stems from a policy known as 'prevention through deterrence' in a 1994 document detailing the agency's strategy for the future. The document, approved by then-Border Patrol Commissioner Doris Meissner, states urban areas pose the greatest concerns — especially 'twin cities' like El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, which she named as the greatest risks for illegal entry. The plan emphasizes the importance of controlling urban areas, so that 'illegal traffic' is forced onto rural roads with less anonymity and less access to public transportation and nationwide travel. 'The prediction is that with traditional entry and smuggling routes disrupted, illegal traffic will be deterred, or forced over more hostile terrain, less suited for crossing and more suited for enforcement,' the plan states. These days, though, migrants have little choice in their final destination, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said. 031125_MS_Border Bodies Search_019.JPG U.S. Custom and Border Protection agents guard the border on Mount Cristo Rey along the border between Ciudad Juárez, left, and Sunland Park in February. Searchers have discovered many sites with human remains on the plateau in the background. The El Paso Sector, a 264-mile stretch of border that includes New Mexico and a handful of West Texas counties, poses 'multiple different dangers,' said Claudio Herrera Baeza, a supervisory Border Patrol agent in the sector. 'The terrain itself is very, very hard. It's unforgiving,' he said of the New Mexico desert. 'A simple twist of an ankle can mean a difficult situation, if not a possibility of dying.' 'Transnational criminal organizations' decide where and when migrants cross the border and often abandon individuals in their care without food, water or supplies, said Landon Hutchens, a spokesperson for Border Patrol's El Paso and Big Bend sectors. 'Most of the time, [migrants] don't even know where they're being smuggled through,' Herrera Baeza added. 'They don't know the terrain; they don't know the vastness of the terrain, the difficulties of the walk.' Underscoring the perils in the barren desert, a solar-powered emergency beacon looms a few miles from the truck stop near Santa Teresa. The beacon offers no emergency supplies — only a red button, a diagram of a collapsing person and a sign. It reads: 'If you need help, push red button. U.S. Border Patrol will arrive in 1 hour. Do not leave this location.' Border Patrol logged nearly 1,000 humanitarian rescues in fiscal year 2024, Hutchens said, and the agency employs a combined 150 or so paramedics and emergency medical technicians to respond to medical emergencies near the border. Upon being nursed back to health, once-injured migrants will be 'placed on removal proceedings' and sent back to their country of origin, Herrera Baeza said. The choice to push an emergency beacon's red button, then, is not an easy one to make. 'I completely understand the difficulties of wanting to have a better life, a better future for your loved ones,' Herrera Baeza said. But he issued a plea for those considering the treacherous trip through the El Paso Sector: 'Please don't cross,' he said. 'Don't come over illegally.'
