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While scouring the Sonoran Desert for objects left behind by migrants crossing into the United States, anthropologist Jason De Le\xf3n happened upon something he didn't expect to get left behind: a human arm, stripped of flesh.\nThis macabre discovery sent him reeling, needing to know what exactly happened to the body, and how many migrants die that way in the wilderness. In researching border-crosser deaths in the Arizona desert, he noticed something surprising. Sometime in the late-1990s, the number of migrant deaths shot up dramatically and have stayed high since. Jason traced this increase to a Border Patrol policy still in effect, called \u201cPrevention Through Deterrence.\u201d\nFirst aired in 2018 and over three episodes, Radiolab investigates this policy, its surprising origins, and the people whose lives were changed forever because of it.\nPart 3: What Remains\xa0\nThe third episode in our Border Trilogy follows anthropologist Jason De Le\xf3n after he makes a grisly discovery in Arivaca, Arizona. In the middle of carrying out his pig experiments with his students, Jason finds the body of a 30-year-old female migrant. With the help of the medical examiner and some local humanitarian groups, Jason discovers her identity. Her name was Maricela. Jason then connects with her family, including her brother-in-law, who survived his own harrowing journey through Central America and the Arizona desert.\nWith the human cost of Prevention Through Deterrence weighing on our minds, we try to parse what drives migrants like Maricela to cross through such deadly terrain, and what, if anything, could deter them.\nSpecial thanks to Carlo Alb\xe1n, Sandra Lopez-Monsalve, Chava Gourarie, Lynn M. Morgan, Mike Wells and Tom Barry.CORRECTION: An earlier version of this episode, when it originally aired, incorrectly stated that a\xa0person's gender can be identified from\xa0bone remains.\xa0We've adjusted the audio to say\xa0that a\xa0person's\xa0sex can be identified from bone remains.\nCITATIONS:\nBooks:Jason De L\xe9on\u2019s book The Land of Open Graves (https://zpr.io/vZbTarDzGQWK)\xa0Timothy Dunn\u2019s book Blockading the Border and Human Rights (https://zpr.io/VTPWNJPusaCn)Joseph Nevin's book, Operation Gatekeeper (https://zpr.io/UTnHFzRstAEw)Articles:Rubio-Goldsmith, Raquel, Melissa McCormick, Daniel Martinez, and Inez Duarte. 2006. \u201cThe \u2018Funnel Effect\u2019 & Recovered Bodies of Unauthorized Migrants Processed by the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner, 1990-2005.\u201d\xa0(https://zpr.io/R3wSpyVCXQhJ) SSRN Electronic Journal.Check out more of Caitlin Dickerson's reporting for The Atlantic (https://zpr.io/GAfC2nfEaBeK).\nOur newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!\nRadiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.\nFollow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.\n\nLeadership support for Radiolab\u2019s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.