"Irma Carrillo Nevares swabbed the inside of her cheek and signed a consent form allowing the Colibrí Center for Human Rights to add her DNA to its database. Carrillo Nevares' son and daughter had gone missing while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border 17 years earlier. She was desperate to find out what had happened to them, and Colibrí's database offered a ray of hope."
"For a decade, the nonprofit Colibrí Center for Human Rights worked with state agencies and humanitarian organizations to identify migrants whose remains were found in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. By 2022, Colibrí had helped facilitate hundreds of successful identifications."
"Since fall 2024, none of Colibrí's partners have been able to access it, receive information from the laboratory that stores and processes the DNA samples, or make identifications. Frustrated forensic practitioners across the Borderlands are wondering: Is there hope for bringing the database back - or is it gone for good?"
Irma Carrillo Nevares submitted her DNA to the Colibrí Center for Human Rights in hopes of finding her missing children. For a decade, Colibrí worked to identify migrants' remains, successfully facilitating hundreds of identifications. However, since fall 2024, the database has become inaccessible, with partners unable to retrieve information or make identifications. Colibrí's website is inactive, and Arizona has moved to dissolve the organization due to unfiled paperwork. Forensic practitioners are left questioning the future of the database and the hope it provided to families.
Read at High Country News
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