Speaking of Mexico - the deaths continue

this is terribly sad... one of my very best friends, who had honored me greatly by asking me to be the godfather to his daughter, crossed illegally over two years ago to work construction with his brother in kansas and, a year ago october, was killed in an automobile accident near the town where he and his brother lived... now his wife is struggling to support herself and the five-year old daughter back in mexico... the suffering that these folks endure just to have a shot at a better life is really something...

With about six weeks remaining in the Border Patrol's fiscal year - and more Border Patrol agents patrolling than ever - 201 men, women and children have succumbed to the elements in Arizona.

In Pima County, which includes Tohono O'odham and Tucson, so many corpses are waiting to be identified, autopsied and returned to Mexico that the coroner is storing 60 of them in a refrigerator truck.

Arizona has emerged as ground zero in the nation's debate over illegal immigration. Minutemen Project volunteers launched patrols this spring to stop border crossers, while humanitarian groups set up water stations and gave medical help to immigrants.

"Each of these individuals has dignity, and we need to recognize that," says Beth Sanders of No More Deaths, a coalition of volunteers who cruise the back roads offering water and medical care. Another group, Humane Borders, posts maps on the Mexican side showing where deaths have occurred and warning in Spanish, "Don't go. It's not worth the suffering."

But the incursion is relentless. Since Oct. 1, Border Patrol agents have caught more than 500,000 "undocumented aliens" in the agency's Tucson and Yuma sectors, which include all of Arizona and a 16-mile stretch of California's border. No one knows how many got through.

Submit To Propeller
Tweet