Oct. 3, 2005 – The United States Customs and Border Patrol reported that a record number of undocumented immigrants perished en route to the US during the last fiscal year. The news follows the release of government statistics showing that immigrant arrests have spiked in recent years.
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- Immigration Tops Federal Prosecution List Under Bush (Oct 3, 2005)
- US Immigration Policy Shift Causes Record Deaths (Oct 3, 2005)
The Border Patrol told reporters that at least 460 people died trying to cross the Mexican-US border since October 1, 2004, most along routes through the desert badlands along the Arizona-Mexico line. The death toll was far higher than the previous year?s 383.
Critics of US immigration policy blame the government?s increasing militarization of the US-Mexico border for the rise in deaths among would-be immigrants. In 1994, the federal government launched Operation Gatekeeper, an exhaustive initiative to close down a smuggling route between San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico, pushing migrants to less-well-patrolled and more dangerous crossing points.
In 2003, the agency issued a new National Border Patrol Strategy that specifically cited closing down the three main corridors used for illegal crossings as a top priority to fight both potential terrorism and the smuggling of drugs, weapons and people.
The rising deaths "shouldn?t surprise anyone," said Claudia Smith of the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation. "They are pushing people into more remote areas where the chances of being rescued are minimal," Smith told the San Diego Union-Tribune. "All they have accomplished eleven years later is the shifting of undocumented traffic from densely populated areas to the most remote areas."
The Border Patrol has been running advertisements in the Mexican media warning of the dangers posed by crossing the border illegally. In addition, the agency conducts search and rescue missions that also serve to prevent immigrants from entering the country.
Despite these programs, over 2,000 people have died attempting to make it into this country since 2000, according to numbers compiled by the Mexican government.
