(NewsNation) – The National Sheriff’s Association has released images of some of the 856 migrants who died in 2022 while attempting to cross into the United States, in an effort to raise awareness of the hardships migrants face in reaching the United States.
It was a record year at the border for the number of migrants who died and migrants encountered or arrested by Border Patrol agents. The record numbers polarized politicians in Washington DC, who took a few stepsbut haven’t found a solution yet.
Jonathan Thompson, the head of National Association of Sheriffssaid he hoped the released images of dead migrants could spur Washington to act.
“Those in the desert who did not survive, drowned in the river, 856 Poor souls, they were given false hope, they were given the belief that they could get here and they could survive the trip and to the trip,” Thompson said. “And they died a miserable, horrible, horrible death and all of this could have been avoided.”
Thompson defended the decision to publish the photos of the dead migrants, saying he felt it was the best way to get people’s attention on the border.
Now a lot of people who can see them might think that’s a pretty horrible way to get the message out to people, but there’s not a sane, reasonable person in this country who can’t look these photos and looking at these images of people crossing the border and not saying something is wrong, something has to stop and something has to change,” Thompson said.
Thompson believes it falls to President Joe Biden to enact border changes.
“We need immigrants. We need immigrants to help this country grow, we have to have them and we want them,” Thompson said. “But we need it to follow a legal route, a legal process. Millions and millions of people come to this country, the “Shining Hill”, as everyone calls us. But now this shining hill, I’m sorry to say, is a hotbed of death and destruction for too many people.
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