Pima County, Arizona, is expected to renew a contract that provides water to migrants seeking to cross into the U.S. at the southern border.
The county's board of supervisors is set to vote June 4 to extend an existing contract with Humane Borders, a nonprofit in Tucson, to provide water and help migrants endure desert conditions, Newsweek reported.
The current $30,000 contract has resulted in water stations — blue, 55-gallon plastic water drums at many locations — that could prevent dehydration and death.
Humane Borders' website says, as of this month, 4,207 migrants have died while crossing the vast Arizona Sonoran Desert.
"Many more haven't been found," according to the group.
In April, Humane Borders expanded operations to the Yuma, Arizona, area with a new permitted water station at a location along the border wall that separates San Luis, Arizona from San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico.
"With the hope people understand this is not about anything to do with political division, this is about saving lives," Human Borders board member Dora Rodriguez, told 13 News in Tucson last week.
Pima County spokesperson Mark Evans told Newsweek the board of supervisors had approved the Humane Borders contract every May or June since 2001.
Board members say the deal with Humane Borders helps "reduce the costs related to the provision of healthcare, law enforcement, coroner services and burial services caused by dehydration and exposure."
U.S. Border Patrol calls the Tucson Sector the busiest sector along the border, 13 News reported.
"We are going to continue to see more death in our deserts," Rodriguez, told 13 News last week. "That's why we have to make sure there is water everywhere we can because that water is lifesaving."
The stations are marked with blue flags on 30-foot poles to alert migrants. Some water barrels and flags are equipped with small solar cells for nighttime visibility.
John Modlin, the chief patrol agent of the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector, warned in April that hot spring and summer months could result in an "unprecedented amounts of death in the desert" this year, Newsweek reported.