In 2026, medical examiners classified two cases linked to the U.S. Border Patrol as homicides. In both cases, agents had released people from detention and left them in extreme cold, without immediate access to phones or public services to call for rides or find shelter. Those people died of hypothermia, but the agents’ actions put them in harm’s way and led to their deaths.
In the webinar’s main presentation, Dr. Gabriella Soto will examine those homicides in connection with the U.S. border enforcement strategy that deliberately uses the hostile desert environments of the Southwest to ensure that people who attempt unauthorized border crossings come to harm. That strategy has led to thousands of known deaths since it took effect. Because the strategy is carried out by agencies, however, it escapes the definition of homicide, which requires individual actors. Medical-legal officials have instead classified these thousands of deaths as accidents, meaning deaths that occur without any indication of intent to harm or kill. Dr. Soto will explain why these deaths need to be reconsidered and will offer an expanded definition of homicide that accurately describes what is happening at the border.
Community leaders, witnesses and advocates will also call on participants to take responsible action and to demand changes in immigration policy that protect immigrants’ rights and human lives.
Webinar details: Border Afterlives: Homicide by Policy on Thursday, October 29 at 7 p.m. ET
Spanish interpretation will be provided.
This content was originally published by United Women in Faith republished with permission on ResourceUMC.org on October 26, 2026.