Water for All.

Humane Borders provides lifesaving water to protect the fundamental human right to safe drinking water. We are a nonpartisan organization, powered by private donations and dedicated volunteers, working to prevent deaths by maintaining water stations throughout Southern Arizona. Our water is for everyone because access to water should never be a barrier to survival. Guided by our faith-based roots, our mission is to save lives and reduce suffering in the desert.

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WHO WE ARE and what we do

Humane Borders operates a series of dozens of permitted water stations in the Sonoran Desert, along the Arizona/Mexico border wall and routes used by migrants making the perilous journey here on foot. Our primary mission is to save desperate people from death by dehydration and exposure, while also working to create a more just and humane border. Since 2000, 4,384 men, women, and children have died in Arizona while fleeing violence and poverty in their home countries. Many more individuals go missing and are never found. 


Humane Borders works with private and public land owners and managers to make water and other lifesaving resources available to migrants, families seeking asylum, and anyone who finds themselves in the unforgiving Arizona desert with no water. We even provide water for search and rescue groups and wildlife. Our water stations consist of 55-gallon blue barrels with a 30-foot blue flag that's visible for miles, with blue as the universal symbol for water.


Founded in the summer of 2000, Humane Borders, Inc. is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that is powered by private donors and volunteers. We have a 4.8-star rating from Charity Navigator. Our focus is humanitarian assistance and reducing death and suffering in the borderlands. Donations to Humane Borders are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. Funding for our lifesaving work comes primarily from individual donors, religious groups, and other nonprofit organizations. 


Water is life, and no one should die because they don't have clean, safe drinking water. Join us in putting humanity before politics.


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As of MAY 2025, 4,384 migrants have died while crossing the vast Arizona Sonoran Desert. Many more haven't been found.

Arizona’s Sonoran Desert is a beautiful, lonely, and potentially deadly place. For over 30 years, U.S. border policies have pushed people seeking safety into remote, deadly parts of the desert's terrain where temperatures soar past 110°F. It's impossible to carry enough water for a multi-day journey. Without reliable water sources, the human body begins to shut down. Migrants may become disoriented, collapse from heat exhaustion, and die under the blistering sun.


While heatstroke and dehydration are common causes of death, people also perish from hypothermia, drowning, gunshot wounds, and exposure to extreme elements. The victims are men, women, and children of all ages.


Each red dot on our death maps represents the site where one or more migrants died. Click on a dot to see what we know: name, age, cause of death, and when the remains were recovered. Each dot tells a story. Each dot represents someone’s father, mother, sister, brother, son, daughter, or loved one.


Recent reporting confirms what humanitarian organizations have long warned: as border enforcement tightens, smugglers are sending migrants through increasingly remote and deadly routes. Many are guided only by cellphones, left to navigate rugged terrain alone, with little food or water. Read more in this NBC News article →


Humane Borders’ mission remains urgent and clear: our water is for all. Water is life. Let the courts decide the fate of migrant travelers, not the desert.


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OUR MISSION AND VALUES

The mission of Humane Borders is to prevent deaths in the desert and to create a more just and humane border.


Our core values are  compassion, safety, integrity, teamwork, and inclusion.




Please join us in co-creating a brighter future in the borderlands