BROOKS COUNTY, Texas—Every week, deputy sheriff Don White heads out on remote ranchlands to search for the bodies of illegal immigrants. Brooks County is about 70 miles north of the U.S.–Mexico border, but it’s also where most of the bodies turn up. The only way to skirt the Border Patrol checkpoint on U.S. Route 281 is to be dropped off south of it, walk north on private ranchland, sometimes for days, and then get picked up again—the next destination is usually Houston. White said many illegal aliens who are trying to evade capture are dropped near the county line 12 miles south of the checkpoint. So far in 2021, 33 bodies have been catalogued in the Brooks County Sheriff’s Office’s “death book.” The pages are filled with photos of bodies in varying stages of decomposition, including skeletons. With the hottest months yet to come, this year is shaping up to …