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 Editorials | Issues | November 2007 
Fewer Died Trying to Enter US Illegally
 Jacques Billeaud - Associated Press
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 |  | For the second year in a row, the number fell, this time to 400, on the Mexican border. |  | |
Phoenix, AZ - The number of illegal immigrants who died while crossing the southern U.S. border fell for the second straight year, officials said recently.
Four hundred people died while entering from Mexico in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, down from the 453 deaths in the previous year. A record 494 deaths were reported in the fiscal year that ended in September 2005.
Border Patrol spokesman Lloyd Easterling said that although the number was 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 more agents in the field, who can spread out more to seek out immigrants crossing in remote and perilous terrain.
More than half of 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 was likely that other immigrants - whom Border Patrol agents have yet to find - had also died.
"This is not good news for the Border Patrol," Hoover said, "and the Border Patrol shouldn't treat this as good news." 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 were to blame for failing to warn illegal immigrants about 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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