To combat migrant death as a result of Prevention through Deterrence policies, INS initiated a Border Safety Initiative in 1998, educating potential crossers on the dangers they may face entering the US. They created search and rescue units to aid those abandoned or lost in the borderlands. Additional warning signs were posted on each side of the border to deter migrants from journeying into the Sonoran Desert. 

Despite efforts to inform migrants of risk, thousands have perished in the desert since ‘98. These policies and measures taken by the US government have not accounted for migrants’ determination to seek a better life.