Sells, Arizona
Twenty miles from the US-Mexico border, Sells is the capital of the Tohono O'odham Nation, which spans both sides of the U.S. and Mexico, bisected by the border. A town with a bright green tank on the side of main street, beautiful pastel-colored buildings, and cows that like to sit on the steps of the elementary school across from the recreational center where girls play toka.
Here in the Sonoran desert, peppered with towering saguaros, triple-digit temperatures set records during the summer months. Thousands of migrants travel through these lands each year because it is one of the least patrolled border crossing zones in the U.S. due to the dangerous environmental conditions and high temperatures. Drug smugglers also use this zone for trafficking. According to Border Patrol data, 7,209 migrants have died while crossing over the last 20 years, although, according to a five-year investigation by USA Today researchers the estimated the toll is much higher. Tens of thousands of people have gone missing since the 1990s after a US policy was put in place, including thousands of children who have been separated from their parents while crossing.