Border deaths called 'humanitarian crisis'

Published October 1, 2009 by the San Antonio Express-News.

By Lynn Brezosky / Express-News

BROWNSVILLE — The 15-year death toll of unauthorized immigrants trying to enter the United States has topped 5,600 and should be recognized as “an international humanitarian crisis,” U.S. and Mexican civil rights groups said in a report Wednesday.

The scathing 57-page report released by the American Civil Liberties Union and Mexico's National Commission on Human Rights concluded that Department of Homeland Security initiatives such as Operation Gatekeeper were implemented with full knowledge that the strategies would divert migrants to some of the nation's deadliest terrain.

“The deaths of migrants have become an integral component of border security policies, laws and measures,” the report said. “Migrant casualties are viewed as an unfortunate but necessary consequence of the global war on terrorism.”

The number of deaths has continued to rise even as Border Patrol data indicate migration has dropped each year since 2007, a trend attributed to fewer job opportunities during the U.S. recession, the report said.

The death toll for the 2009 fiscal year that ended Wednesday was expected to be among the highest ever, with deaths in Texas surging in the Laredo and Del Rio sectors. Arizona's Tucson sector is the highest, with at least 171 deaths.

Averaged out, at least one migrant has died per day.

Causes of death included heat exhaustion or hypothermia, drowning and automobile accidents, which authors blame in part on high-speed Border Patrol chases and nail strips to flatten tires.

Rafael Lemaitre, spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Washington, D.C., said the agency was working with government and humanitarian agencies on both sides of the border to prevent illegal crossings in the first place.

“We see this as a shared problem between the United States and Mexico,” he said. “It's a twofold strategy — prevent the illegal crossings from taking place and target the criminal networks and smugglers.”

The Border Patrol in recent years has distributed public service messages throughout Mexico on the dangers of crossing the border, trained special search and rescue forces, and erected beacons with panic buttons.

Officials said 911 calls in the Tucson sector increased by five times.

Humanitarian groups maintain that the rising number of deaths is evidence that such “persecutor as savior” initiatives fall short.

Meanwhile, private-sector humanitarian efforts to set up water stations or offer medical assistance have been thwarted, if not by vandalism then by laws that can charge helpers with aiding and abetting, unlawful transport or littering.

The death toll itself is another problem, the report said. Border Patrol statistics do not include bodies found by local law enforcement or on the Mexican side of the border. There is no centralized procedure for identifying the dead.

“Families of migrants are faced with complex, often contradictory bureaucratic mazes for finding missing or dead relatives,” the report said.

Copyright © 2009 San Antonio Express-News