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 News from Around the Americas | September 2006 
US-Mexico Border Deaths Double in 10 Years: US Congress
 AFP
The number of deaths among would-be immigrants along the US-Mexico border has doubled over the past decade, according to a US Congress report.
Most of the increase in fatalities occurred along Mexico's border with the southwest state of Arizona, according to the Government Accountability Office, Congress's investigative arm.
The GAO estimated that in 1995, 266 people died trying to cross into the United States, while 427 died last year.
The report found that the increase occurred even though there was not a corresponding rise in attempts to illegally enter the United States, and called for additional research to explain the troubling trend.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who requested the report, on Thursday introduced the Border Death Reduction Act to help reduce the number of deaths.
"Every eighteen and a half hours, someone dies trying to cross the border between the United States and Mexico," he said, calling the GAO findings "sobering, shocking, and, I strongly believe, a cause for action."
"The increases, it appears, stem largely from an increase in deaths from exposure to the elements in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona," he said.
Frist added: "Illegal immigration needs to stop. We must defend our borders. We must construct physical barriers, add detention beds, hire personnel, and equip them with better technology."
The Republican Senate leader also called for passage of his bill, which would place "rescue beacons" through the desert.
"Theyre tall poles with lights at the top and radio transmitters inside. People in trouble can activate a beacon to let (border patrol authorities) know that they need help," he said.
"Individuals who activate beacons do not get a free pass. They will, of course, receive necessary medical treatment. But rescued individuals will still be detained and deported like anyone else who violates our borders," said Frist.
His bill also would require US border authorities to create a strategy for comprehensively reducing border deaths, and would impose tough, new penalties on human smugglers called "coyotes" who abandon their charges while leading them through the southwestern US desert. |
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