Some shouted in disapproval while others honked car horns in support of the 8th Annual Migrant March on Sunday, Sept. 28, 2008.

About three dozen volunteers from Humane Borders, a non-profit organization based out of First Christian Church, 740 E. Speedway Blvd., carried white wooden crosses in memory of every migrant who has died in the Arizona-Sonoran desert from Oct. 2007 through Aug. 2008.

The event began with a memorial service at the church, and the march proceeded through downtown Tucson to its destination at the Federal Courthouse, 405 W Congress St.

“We do this in memory of the people that have died in the desert,” said Alex Mich, a volunteer with the organization for about seven years. ”We have crosses with the names of the people that have died, and some bodies are pretty badly decomposed and can’t be identified so we mark those as just unknowns.”

According to the organization, the number of deaths in the desert is currently at 176.

“We get the number of the deceased from the office of the medical examiner,” said Doug Rouppe, operations manager with Humane Borders. “They are the ones that keep the best numbers because they actually have to see each person.

"They have to see each corpse.”

Although people are still dying in the desert, the number of deaths this year has decreased from the past.

“This year there have been fewer people going through our part of the desert,” said Robin Hoover, founder of Humane Borders and Pastor at First Christian Church.

“This is certainly not a function of law enforcement,” said Hoover. “Migrants continue to die in the same patterns in the same corridors year after year, which shows that Border Patrol does not have any kind of tactical command of any corridor in Arizona.”

Among the volunteers at the march was Harry Smith, a retired firefighter from New York who moved to southern Arizona four years ago.

“I spent a lot of my time with the border serving the migrants who are repatriated,” Smith said.

Smith is a member of the Green Valley Samaritans, a faith-based group of about 20 members who collect garbage and conduct migrant searches.

"From our base out of Green Valley we serve water and food when we find them,Smith said, "we are there to help,

"We are there to make sure they don’t die."

Check out a narrated slide show about the march: 8th Annual Border Memorial and March