Migrant deaths along the Mexico–United States border

Border Patrol sign in California warning "Caution! Do not expose your life to the elements. It's not worth it!"

Each year there are several hundred immigrant deaths along the U.S.-Mexico border of people trying to enter the United States illegally. The number of deaths has steadily increased since the middle 1990s with exposure (including heat stroke, dehydration, and hypothermia) being the leading cause. According to the U.S. Border Patrol, 1,954 people died crossing the United States-Mexico border between the years 1998-2004. In the fiscal year ending September 29, 2004, 460 migrants died crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.[1] In 2005, more than 500 died across the entire U.S.-Mexico border. The number of yearly border crossing deaths has doubled since 1995.

Mexico's Secretariat of Foreign Affairs has compiled data that includes deaths on the Mexican side of the border area duLICATION cucb

Geographic distrnbibivbon

• Graphic showing the num

Arizona

The Arizona Daily Star maintains a database of border deaths recorded by the Pima, Santa Cruz, Cochise and Yuma County medical examiners between summer 2004 to September 2006.

Trends

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Causes

The reasons and possible causes are numerous, ranging from accidental deaths and natural causes to intentional homicide.

Exposure

The United States-Mexico barrier was built to deter undocumented immigration in areas with historically high numbers of border crossings. As a consequence, undocumented immigrants have to cross the Sonoran Desert and the Baboquivari Mountain in Arizona. This has made exposure (including heat stroke, dehydration, and hypothermia) one of the leading causes of death.

Drowning

A common cause of immigrant border deaths is drowning in the canals, ditches and the Rio Grande .

Accidents

Significant numbers of illegal immigrants die in car accidents and other accidental causes. According to a December 2006 cover story in the San Diego Reader, "...traffic fatalities involving migrants have more than doubled since 2003 as coyotes, or polleros — the guides leading migrants across the border — try other methods. On August 7, nine migrants died in a crash in the Yuma sector when the driver of a Chevrolet Suburban — in which 21 Mexicans were "stacked like cordwood" — lost control after crossing a Border Patrol spike strip at high speed. This year the number killed in traffic accidents during illegal crossings is about 50." [2]

In January 2003, two illegal immigrant passengers died when their truck crashed on Interstate 8 while fleeing the Border Patrol, after a spike strip punctured a tire.[3] A week after the accident, a third victim, Elvia Rumbo Leyva, died in the hospital. [4]

Border Patrol killings

In January 2007, a Border Patrol agent shot and killed Francisco Javier Domínguez Rivera, age 22.[5] Mexico lodged an official protest with the United States over this stating its “firm condemnation” and “serious concern over the recurrence of this type of incident.” The note demanded an exhaustive investigation.[6][7]. Though the incident was recorded by surveillance cameras, the recording was not very clear. [8] The FBI is investigating the incident,[9] and the Border Patrol agent has been put on administrative leave.

In January 2006, an eight year veteran of the Border Patrol, who a Border Patrol spokesman said believed his life to be in jeopardy, shot and killed Guillermo Martínez Rodríguez, age 20, with a single gunshot to the back of his right shoulder. Rodriguez died the next day. The law enforcement officer was fearful of stones which were being thrown at him.[10] [11]

Raúl Martínez, who is not related to the man who died, said assaults on agents have increased "dramatically" in the area where the shooting took place, about a half-mile east of the San Ysidro Port of Entry. Agents are routinely pelted with rocks, sticks, bottles and other objects that, if thrown at close range, can cause serious injury or death, Martínez said. Agents have to make split-second decisions to protect themselves. "If I was put in the same shoes of this agent, that's exactly what we'd have to do. The possibility of a rock striking me or possibly killing me — it's unfortunate situations have to come to this point," the Border Patrol spokesman said. [12] . As a case in point, a border control officer was killed on Jan 20, 2008 in Imperial Sand Dunes in California after being run over by smugglers' Hummer vehicle while trying to lay spike strips.

In May 2000, an illegal immigrant was shot in the shoulder by a border patrolman near Brownsville, Texas, and died later from the wounds.

On May 28, 1994, Martín García Martínez, age 30, was shot by a Border Patrol agent at the San Ysidro port of entry. He died on July 3 as a result of his injuries.

According to Rodolfo Acuña, a Chicano activist[13] and Professor Emeritus of Chicano Studies at California State University, "Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported 117 cases of human rights abuses by US officials against migrants from 1988 to 1990, including fourteen deaths. During the 1980s, Border Patrol agents shot dozens of people, killing eleven and permanently disabling ten.". In contrast to Acuña allegations, Mark Stevenson of the Associated Press reports that:

"Undocumented Central American migrants complain much more about how they are treated by Mexican officials than about authorities on the U.S. side of the border, where migrants may resent being caught but often praise the professionalism of the agents scouring the desert for their trail." [Few Protections for Migrants to Mexico, AP April 19th, 2006]"

Indeed, According to Jose Luis Soberanes, president of the CNDH (National Commission of Human Rights): "the Mexican government mistreats ‘indocumentados’ that cross its territory, it keeps them in jails, in overcrowded conditions, many times without food, without medical attention and overall, violating their human rights."

Vigilante Killings

According to Time Magazine, in the first half of 2000, three immigrants were killed and seven others wounded by vigilante groups patrolling the U.S. side of the border to enforce border security and round up migrants. In 2000, the United Nations opened an investigation into vigilante killings of migrants crossing Mexico's border with the USA, dispatching a senior UN investigator to the border country close to where a 74-year-old rancher was charged with killing Eusebio de Haro, an unarmed Mexican he tried to subdue for the border patrol and fatally shot in the back of the thigh after pursuing him a quarter mile down the road in his truck.

Intentional killings

It is often very difficult for the police to identify the suspects, because many groups might be involved. Authorities think that most of the more violent deaths were orchestrated by illegal immigrant smugglers, known as coyotes.

The coyotes, a term used to describe people who smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States for profit, are infamous for the way in which they treat their clients, who are also often deemed as "human cargo." Cases of rape and beatings by coyotes have been reported by illegal immigrants who were smuggled into the United States by coyotes. The number of times this has happened is hard to ascertain since many illegal immigrants fear they would be deported if they went to the police for help, and because the coyotes often threaten to hurt family members that are still in their native countries.

On February 8, 2007, four gunmen of unknown nationality opened fire on a truck carrying illegal immigrants in the Ironwood Forest National Monument, killing two men and a 15-year-old girl.[14] The incident was covered on the front page of every major newspaper in Mexico City [15].

International consequences

The deaths have caused tension between the United States and other countries, particularly Mexico, from where a majority of illegal immigrants that enter the United States through the Southwestern borders come. Foreign consulates across the Southwest United States, in particular those of Latin American countries, have condemned the deaths of immigrants across the border.[16]

See also

• No More Deaths

External links

• Unsafe Crossings Audio short on rape of immigrants