A grim toll of a dozen fatalities in just three days marks the rapid onset of this year’s season of death along the US-Mexican border. As temperatures suddenly soared in southern Arizona this past week, so did border-crossing deaths.
Twelve border crossers were listed as dead in Arizona between last Friday and Monday. Border Patrol agents in western Arizona called this past weekend the busiest ever in a three-day period as they made forty rescues. An equal number were chalked up by agents in the Tucson sector.
It’s scary that the only thing keeping illegal border crossers from landing in the US are temperatures. Notice they talk about “rescues.” How many arrests? Well, I imagine that number is probably somewhere between zero and zero, but that’s just a hunch.
Corpses of the crossers were scattered among different sectors of the border, with a majority found in the relatively unpopulated western part of the state. “What scares me is that there just continues to be very widely scattered deaths,” said the Rev. Robin Hoover, founder of Humane Borders, a group that puts out jugs of water in remote areas used by illegal crossers.
What scares me is that a man of God is so blatantly disrespectful of the laws of this country. He’s putting out jugs in the desert so the people who enter the country illegally can have a drink. How about making it harder for them to come in? If it were harder, then they would cross at the controlled border and wouldn’t have to die in the desert. By setting foot on american soil, these people are committing crimes. By leaving out jugs of water for them, Hoover is aiding and abetting them and should be arrested immediately and thrown in jail.
US border control policy over the past decade has increasingly funneled the immigrant flow into ever more rugged and dangerous terrain. More than 3,000 people have died trying to make the crossing in the past decade.
Number of people who die crossing the border at legitimate crossings? Zero. Sorry if my sympathy level is a bit low for the people who died entering the country illegally.
More than 200 extra Border Patrol agents were deployed in Arizona precisely to prevent such deaths this summer. Last year about 200 people died crossing the line in Arizona. An almost equal number perished in California and Texas.
They shouldn’t be preventing the deaths (ie: doing rescues after people are already here), but instead should be enforcing the border. Imagine what would happen if the border patrol actually (gasp) enforced the border!?
This past weekend’s macabre tally comes as the national immigration debate simmers and as the first comprehensive immigration reform bill has been introduced in Congress.
The news of the border deaths this past weekend received minimal coverage, only a tiny fraction of the attention afforded last month to the shut-the-borders campaign staged by the Minuteman Project.
Sorry, but why should we care? If you’re going to take the risk to enter the country illegally, you must accept the consequences. It’s a tiny fraction because these people don’t belong here and wouldn’t be dying if they weren’t breaking the law! Of course the Minutemen got more coverage. They’re US citizens doing something most US citizens wish the damned government would get off its ass and do!
Just last week the Mexican Consulate undertook a public education campaign warning crossers that at this time of year they will face lethal conditions.
Why not continue to educate them on the illegality of what they’re doing? Oh that’s right, in Mexico you can get a neat little printed sheet on how to cross the border with tips for evading the illustrious border patrol and everything. Sorry I asked.
Just so we’re clear, Title 8, section 1325 of the US Criminal Code:
Section 1325. Improper entry by alien
(a) Improper time or place; avoidance of examination or inspection;
misrepresentation and concealment of factsAny alien who (1) enters or attempts to enter the United States
at any time or place other than as designated by immigration
officers, or (2) eludes examination or inspection by immigration
officers, or (3) attempts to enter or obtains entry to the United
States by a willfully false or misleading representation or the
willful concealment of a material fact, shall, for the first
commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18 or
imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both, and, for a subsequent
commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18, or
imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both.(b) Improper time or place; civil penalties
Any alien who is apprehended while entering (or attempting to
enter) the United States at a time or place other than as
designated by immigration officers shall be subject to a civil
penalty of -
(1) at least $50 and not more than $250 for each such entry (or
attempted entry); or
(2) twice the amount specified in paragraph (1) in the case of
an alien who has been previously subject to a civil penalty under
this subsection.
Civil penalties under this subsection are in addition to, and not
in lieu of, any criminal or other civil penalties that may be
imposed.
Just being here is a crime. An illegal doesn’t have to come here and do something else illegal to be a criminal.
I’d be all for a fair worker exchange program. Let them work if they want to. They should be able to. Instead of offering blanket amnesty for people who are already here every few years, why not develop a good solid legal means for people to seek work in the United States? What would be wrong with a program where a guy could legally cross the border on an express pass of some kind and come here to work? Nothing.
Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats have the stones to do it, and that’s really the problem at hand.
Source for article: The Nation