Representatives of Baylor University and the Mexican government will meet with reporters Tuesday in Waco to discuss a new collaborative effort to identify the remains of immigrants who die while attempting to cross the border into the U.S.

Mexico has established a database of information from missing persons reports, photographs provided by families, fingerprints and signatures in an effort to identify remains.

Baylor will provide DNA analysis.

“Within the frame of the consular protection programs operated by the Government of Mexico to serve the Mexicans communities abroad, the instrumentation of the (System for the Identification of Remains and Localization of Individuals) project comes as an important and valuable tool that will help us to identify the remains of those who have died and the border and whose identity was never established,” said Antonio Fraire, Director General, Protection, Ministry of Foreign Affaire;.

“This system will bring closure to the drama of many Mexican families by letting them know the final fate of their missing loved ones,” he said.

“I will receive DNA samples from unidentified immigrants’ remains for DNA analysis from medical examiners’ offices and reference samples from families from Mexican consulate offices,” said Dr. Lori Baker, who is heading up the project for Baylor.

“I will test each of the samples to the reference samples provided. Each of the consulates has submitted a list of cases to the officials in Mexico of unidentified individuals and they are working now to compile the list and send it to me. We will first work on cases in which we have a tentative idea of identity and can receive a family reference sample.”

Baker’s work in DNA research and her DNA identification program, “Reuniting Families,” which helps identify the remains of immigrants, have attracted national attention.

Since the start of the immigration project, she has made five positive identifications, Baylor said.

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