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 News from Around the Americas | October 2007 
Humanitarian Group Reports Increase in Arizona/Sonora Border Deaths
 KSWT 13
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| | 237 bodies were recovered along the Arizona/Sonora Border since last October. |
Yuma, Ariz. - A humanitarian group is reporting an increase in illegal border crossers dying in the desert. But numbers in the Yuma Sector are showing some improvement.
However those stats are fewer in this area due to strict border enforcement.
237 bodies were recovered along the Arizona/Sonora Border since last October.
That's according to the humanitarian group Derechos Humanos, which says that number has increased since the last fiscal year.
However, in the Yuma Sector alone Border Patrol says there's been a decline in fatalities.
"That number has gone down considerably, about 70 percent within the last fiscal year", says Agent Michael Bernacke.
The department says it's found eleven bodies most of them in remote desert areas near the Granite Mountains where there is not a border fence.
"A lot of these people have been found with bundles of narcotics that they've been trying to further into the United States."
"They cover up their tracks by wearing foam and walking on the lava rocks in their area", says Agent Michael Bernacke.
Illegal immigrants have braved the harsh desert conditions for a variety of reasons.
The Mexican Consulate says many of them head to the Tucson Sector because enforcement here is very intense.
"An increased number of agents and things are pretty tough for crossing into the U.S. they tend to look either to the east or west, they displace themselves you know", says Miguel Escobar Valdez.
For now some humanitarian groups leave water in the desert to help those in need.
The border fence is built along dense urban areas where illegals can come across and hide and that's how some of them end up taking their chances in the desert. |
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