Glossary
Terms related to immigration issues
Irregular Migration: A person who enters a country avoiding proper immigration inspection and without proper immigration documentation.
Undocumented Immigrants: Unlawful entry into a country without proper immigration documents or inspection by an immigration official, or expired immigration documents that preclude a person from entering, pass through, remain in a country other than the person’s own nationality.
Border crossing: Crossing into the international geographical border set by a country’s legal territory limits.
Border Patrol Missing Migrant Program: Border Patrol established the Missing Migrant Program to help rescue migrants in distress and reduce migrant deaths along the Southwest border. Through this program, Border Patrol coordinates with outside entities to assist migrants and to recover and identify remains. The agency assists migrants and recovers and identifies remains. The agency assists other state and county emergency responders in mitigating 9-1-1 calls from migrants in distress and other reports from outside entities about missing or deceased migrants. .
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Locator: This page is used to locate a detainee who is in ICE custody. With the online detainee location system you cannot search for records of persons under the age of 18.
Forensic offices: This is where law officials take the bodies or remains of deceased persons. All located human remains must undergo a forensic medical analyst to determine the cause and time of death.
Repatriation flights: These are flights whose main objective is to transfer passengers who are deported from the US to their country of origin.
CBPOne: It is a mobile app that serves as a single portal to a variety of CBP services. Through a series of guided questions, the application will direct each type of user to the appropriate services based on their needs. Highly recommended for asylum applicants.
9-1-1: National public emergency service number for the United States and Mexico. It is the phone number that migrants must dial to seek help.
NAMUS: National System of Missing and Unidentified Persons.
CIAM: Mexican Foreign Relations designated 24/7 call Center for Information and Assistance to Mexicans (CIAM) nationals seeking information on Mexican current affairs in addition to reporting missing family members.