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Migrants deaths at border decline to 400
By Jacques Billeaud, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, November 08, 2007 | No comments posted.
PHOENIX - The number of illegal immigrants who died while crossing the southern U.S. border fell for the second straight year, officials said Wednesday.
Four hundred people perished while entering from Mexico in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, down 12 percent from the 453 deaths in the previous year. A record 494 deaths were reported in the fiscal year that ended in September 2005.
U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Lloyd Easterling said that although the number is still too high, “We feel we have made significant progress this year.”
The Border Patrol attributed the lower numbers to tighter border enforcement that led to fewer illegal crossings and to 2,500 new agents in the field, who can spread out more to seek out immigrants crossing in remote and perilous terrain.
More than half the deaths were reported in Arizona, the busiest illegal entry point along the nearly 2,000-mile southern border. For several years, immigrants have succumbed to triple-digit heat during the summers in the state’s deserts.
The primary cause of death was exposure to heat. Other causes include vehicle and train accidents, drownings, fatigue and banditry.
The deaths dropped in seven of the nine Border Patrol sectors along the southern border. The increases came in the sectors near Tucson, Ariz., and Laredo, Texas.
The Rev. Robin Hoover, founder of the Tucson-based group Humane Borders, said it is likely that other immigrants died whom Border Patrol agents have yet to find.
“This is not good news for the Border Patrol, and the Border Patrol shouldn’t treat this as good news,” Hoover said. He blamed the deaths on the government’s border enforcement strategy.
As the Border Patrol has increased security in certain spots, smugglers have turned to more remote and dangerous migration routes where enforcement is weaker, said Hoover, whose group has dozens of water stations in the Arizona desert to help illegal immigrants in distress.
Easterling said money-hungry smugglers are to blame for failing to warn illegal immigrants how dangerous it can be to cross the desert.
“(Border Patrol agents) are not the ones out there beckoning these illegal aliens to come over,” Easterling said. “When you think about it, you have to tie it into the smugglers making false promises.”
Four hundred people perished while entering from Mexico in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, down 12 percent from the 453 deaths in the previous year. A record 494 deaths were reported in the fiscal year that ended in September 2005.
U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Lloyd Easterling said that although the number is still too high, “We feel we have made significant progress this year.”
The Border Patrol attributed the lower numbers to tighter border enforcement that led to fewer illegal crossings and to 2,500 new agents in the field, who can spread out more to seek out immigrants crossing in remote and perilous terrain.
More than half the deaths were reported in Arizona, the busiest illegal entry point along the nearly 2,000-mile southern border. For several years, immigrants have succumbed to triple-digit heat during the summers in the state’s deserts.
The primary cause of death was exposure to heat. Other causes include vehicle and train accidents, drownings, fatigue and banditry.
The deaths dropped in seven of the nine Border Patrol sectors along the southern border. The increases came in the sectors near Tucson, Ariz., and Laredo, Texas.
The Rev. Robin Hoover, founder of the Tucson-based group Humane Borders, said it is likely that other immigrants died whom Border Patrol agents have yet to find.
“This is not good news for the Border Patrol, and the Border Patrol shouldn’t treat this as good news,” Hoover said. He blamed the deaths on the government’s border enforcement strategy.
As the Border Patrol has increased security in certain spots, smugglers have turned to more remote and dangerous migration routes where enforcement is weaker, said Hoover, whose group has dozens of water stations in the Arizona desert to help illegal immigrants in distress.
Easterling said money-hungry smugglers are to blame for failing to warn illegal immigrants how dangerous it can be to cross the desert.
“(Border Patrol agents) are not the ones out there beckoning these illegal aliens to come over,” Easterling said. “When you think about it, you have to tie it into the smugglers making false promises.”
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