Hi everyone!!! Welcome to "Borderlands", a multi-episode podcast about the US-Mexico migration border policies and their impact on communities, in one of the most militarized, controlled and deadly counties of the border: Pima county, in the State of Arizona. This third episode will focus on Search and rescue in Borderlands, in the Sonora desert. Why is there a need for Search and Rescue? Who does Search and Rescue and how? … In 1994, the Clinton administration introduced the Prevention through deterrence strategy, implemented by Border Patrol. This strategy transformed this border, where moving was quite fluid even though it was already controlled, to an ultra-surveilled area to prevent illegal entry of human beings and goods. In addition to the physical wall separating the United States and Mexico as well as the human means through the border patrol, the deployment of technological tools has allowed the implementation of a virtual wall which pushes back the people who try to cross the border without authorization to more and more isolated places of the desert. Crossing the border is becoming longer and more dangerous. People are faced with both the relentlessness of the American means of control and surveillance and the roughness of the desert (heat, fauna and flora) which can lead to death. Borderlands is a ballet of actors intervening at different levels, whether institutional or through citizen initiatives on the subject of search and rescue. In this episode we will listen to different testimonies: a border patrol, a humanitarian organization and a researcher who work on a daily basis on the subject. We will try to understand what happens in this desert, at this border, for people who try to cross. Let’s begin with Mario AGUNDEZ, border patrol missing migrant program’s coordinator for the Tucson sector. He explains Border Patrol missions… …And how does the Border Patrol Search and Rescue special unit, called BORSTAR, intervene on the field ?…. As, Mario Agundez explained BORSTAR are "few" in numbers. Moreover, BORSTAR are above all Border Patrols. Their primary mission is law enforcement, as he said. As the BORSTAR supervisor, John Redd, told the humanitarian organization No More Deaths, 80 to 90% of a BORSTAR's work time is spent on its law enforcement missions more than on rescue ones. In addition, 6% of Border Patrols, about 12,000 agents, are reportedly trained in certified medicine and only 1% of agents, 200 people, have received training in search and rescue techniques. These figures seem very low in comparison with the magnitude of the deadly ballet that operates in the Sonora desert. No More Deaths, a humanitarian organization operating since 2004 directly in the desert of Sonora (Arizona), documents human right violations in Borderlands with the help of La Coalicion de derechos humanos and researchers. They called border patrol intervention: a left to die practice. Let’s listen to Parker Deighean, volunteer and coordinator of the No more deaths abuse documentation group… …In the borderlands, you have plenty of control and surveillance means. One of them, the Beacon towers, is presented by officials as a search and rescue tool. Let’s listen to Tara Plath, an interdisciplinary based researcher, living in Ajo, Arizona and doing research and mapping on Beacon towers. This third episode let us understand that even If there is a need of Search and rescue operations, there are no efficient official responses…See you soon… and don’t forget: this episode was mixed by Nicolas Puissant. Speakers: Mario AGUNDEZ, border patrol missing migrant program’s coordinator for the Tucson sector Parker Deighan, volunteer and coordinator of the No more deaths abuse documentation group Tara Plath, an interdisciplinary based researcher, living in Ajo, Arizona and doing research and mapping on Beacon towers.