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 Editorials | Issues | July 2007 
Tougher Security Along US-Mexico Border Causes More Migrant Deaths
 Reuters
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 |  | Has enhanced border security increased the number of migrant deaths? Unquestionably.
- Wayne Cornelius |  | |
Reynosa, Mexico - Tougher security along the US-Mexico border is forcing migrants to take more dangerous, remote routes to cross into the United States and pushing up the number of deaths in the desert.
This year could see a record of well over 500 such deaths. At least 275 Mexican bodies have been found in the first six months, according to a Mexican Congressional report backed by US and Mexican border groups and academics.
They say at least 4,500 Mexicans have died trying to cross since the United States drastically increased border controls in late 1994 to stem illegal immigration.
Following the failure of President George W Bush’s immigration reform proposals in Congress last month, US policy is centered on tighter border security rather than giving immigrants more options to find jobs legally.
But some border experts say enforcement does not stop those trying to get into the United States and only makes it more dangerous, greatly raising the fees charged by people smugglers. As security increases, so will the number of deaths, they say.
“Has enhanced border security increased the number of migrant deaths? Unquestionably,” said Wayne Cornelius, an immigration expert at the University of California San Diego. “There is no other way to explain the sharp increase in fatalities.”
The Border Patrol recovered some 116 bodies in the Arizona desert between last October 1 and the end of June, and it only records deaths on the US side of the frontier. It blames ruthless smugglers for taking migrants through dangerous terrain and and sometimes abandoning them there.
“The number of migrant deaths is increasing because smugglers are taking them to less-patrolled, more dangerous areas,” Border Patrol spokesman Ramon Rivera said. He said agents rescued 1,450 people in the desert in the same period.
Unknown numbers of migrants from Central America and other countries also die each year.
The US government has raised its Border Patrol deployment to around 13,500 agents today from fewer than 4,000 in 1993 and plans to add a further 9,600 agents by 2012. It deployed 6,000 National Guard troops to the border last year for a two-year period until more agents are hired.
Washington aims to have “operational control” of the border by 2013 by building a 1,120-km wall along parts of the frontier and creating a “virtual fence” in desert areas with drones, sensors, cameras, satellite technology and vehicle barriers. |
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