RW ONLINE: Deadly Border Crossings\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nDeadly Border Crossings\r\n<\/p>
Revolutionary Worker #1163, August 18, 2002<\/i>, posted at rwor.org<\/p>\r\n
For much of the spring and early summer, high pressure systems have hovered \r\nover the southwestern areas of the United States. Across the Sierra Nevada in \r\nsouthern California the weather has been clear and warm, the dry breeze laden \r\nwith a desert scent. Sunny skies and warm temperatures have replaced the \"June \r\ngloom,\" the usual fog and low clouds in Los Angeles and other areas near the \r\ncoast. But in the vast Mojave and Sonora Deserts that spread from northern \r\nMexico to southern California and Arizona, the heat can be deadly.<\/p>\r\n
In June 2002, 67 people on the U.S. side died crossing the border, walking \r\nthrough remote desert plains and barren mountains. The Mexican government says \r\nanother 22 were found dead in Mexico. This is the largest number of deaths in \r\none month since the U.S. started building walls and high-tech barriers along the \r\nsouthern border in 1994. This is a new record for a policy that has killed an \r\naverage of one immigrant a day for nearly eight years <\/i>.<\/p>\r\n
Many have died in especially cruel ways: drowned in rivers, suffocated in \r\nclosed vehicles, killed in traffic accidents, struck by lightning, fallen off \r\ncliffs or shot and killed by the Border Patrol. But most have died in the summer \r\nmonths, from heatstroke or dehydration.<\/p>\r\n
The first group of bodies this year was found on arch 14--four young men, in \r\ntheir late teens or early 20s, floating in the All-American Canal in Imperial \r\nCounty, California. The Imperial Valley was called the Valley of Death before \r\nwater from the Colorado River was used for irrigation-based agriculture. The \r\nfour immigrants drowned trying to cross the swift-flowing canal, or perhaps \r\ntrying to get relief from the unbearable heat. Already people are dying in \r\ngroups trying to cross the border and it isn't even the hottest part of \r\nsummer.<\/p>\r\n
In May, 14 more immigrants died together near Yuma, Arizona after getting \r\nlost in the desert and losing their guide. To the east in the \"Tucson corridor,\" \r\nthe area where most people cross, the risk of death is increasing. There has \r\nbeen a dramatic decrease <\/i>in the number of people trying to cross the \r\nborder--many migrants come to work at specific jobs, in restaurants, in \r\nconstruction or agriculture, and there is just less work in the U.S. economy. \r\nBut the number of deaths has remained about the same. According to official \r\nBorder Patrol statistics, 81 immigrants have died since October 1, 2001. In the \r\nsame period last year, the INS reported 82 deaths. Other reports in the press \r\nsay over 90 have died so far this year. And local activists have pointed out \r\nthat some who die in the desert may never be found, because the area is home to \r\nthe coyote and other animals who scavenge the dead.<\/p>\r\n
A deputy coroner of Imperial said, \"We're finding more multiples--bodies in \r\nthrees, fours and fives. They're really trying to avoid detection, so they're \r\ngoing to more and more remote areas.\"<\/p>\r\n
If you drive the interstate along the southern border, you can see the sights \r\nand sounds of the government's militarization of the border. For miles on each \r\nside of every little border town, there are formidable physical barriers that \r\nimmigrants call el muro <\/i>, the wall--high steel and concrete walls, \r\nditches and dikes, stadium-style lights that can be seen for miles at night. \r\nThere are 10,000 Border Patrol agents along the border, in SUVs, all-terrain \r\nvehicles and helicopters, equipped with night-vision equipment and infrared \r\nsensors.<\/p>\r\n
Each day as the sun sets, up to 1,500 immigrants go up against this \r\nparamilitary operation and try to cross the border into Arizona. They call the \r\nway the \"Devil's Path.\" It is marked by discarded water bottles, abandoned bags \r\nand possessions, and little wooden crosses marking the death of someone on the \r\ndesert sand. In the desert, heat and dehydration can kill in less than a day. \r\nBut to avoid el muro <\/i>, people must sometimes hike for four days or \r\nmore.<\/p><\/b><\/i>\r\n<\/b>
U.S. Policy of Death<\/p>\r\n
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\"Operation Gatekeeper is the policy of death. It stains our land with the \r\nblood of our neighbors, and pierces the hearts of our people.\"<\/p>\r\n
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Henry Ramon, tribal vice chairman of the Tohono O'odham Nation, \r\nreferring to the government's efforts to stop immigrants from crossing the \r\nborder<\/p>\r\n
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The Tohono O'odham, the \"desert people,\" are an ancient people who have lived \r\nin the area since 300 BC. Many of the immigrant deaths have occurred on or near \r\nthe Tohono O'odham Nation, which is an area the size of Connecticut.<\/p>\r\n
The indigenous people are themselves targets of U.S. border policies. As \r\nHenry Ramon, tribal vice chairman of the Tohono O'odham Nation pointed out, \"Our \r\npeople do not recognize this imaginary line that is an international boundary.\" \r\nBut the U.S. government has divided them into \"Mexican citizens\" and \"U.S. \r\ncitizens.\"<\/p>\r\n
The merciless pursuit of border crossers and the constant loss of life has \r\ncaused division and controversy in southern Arizona. Writers Dennis Wagner and \r\nPat Flannery pointed out in the Arizona Republic <\/i>, the \"$2.99 \r\nall-American breakfast\" is cooked by immigrants. The oranges for the orange \r\njuice were picked by immigrant workers in Florida. The strawberries for the jam \r\nwere picked by immigrants in California. The bacon is from a meat-packing plant \r\nwhich now employs mainly Latino immigrants.<\/p>\r\n
Immigrant labor is part of the fabric of the U.S. economy, especially in \r\nconstruction, custodial services, meat-packing, garment, and food service. \r\nImmigrants clean the houses, care for lawns and raise the children of the \r\nwealthy and many in the middle class. People in the agricultural industry say \r\nthat 75% of their workers are undocumented.<\/p>\r\n
But the demand for immigrant labor is only part of the story. People are \r\nforced to leave their countries by U.S. economic policies that have ruined whole \r\nsectors of industry and agriculture in Mexico and the rest of Latin America.<\/p>\r\n
\"Globalization has affected us greatly,\" Sebastian Hernandez, a 55-year-old \r\nimmigrant told the Arizona Star <\/i>. \"I'm told that it will be a benefit to \r\nus someday, but from what I can see it hasn't been.\" Sebastian owns a 250-acre \r\nfarm in Chiapas, the poorest state in Mexico. \"We have good, productive lands, \r\ncompared to the land I saw in Arizona and Texas. The soil is much better there, \r\nand we are surrounded by water. But these days there's no buyers for the corn \r\nand beans we grow.\" Mexican agriculture has been devastated by the dumping of \r\ncheap farm products from the U.S. Midwest.<\/p>\r\n
His son, Abel Hernandez, talked about crossing the border in April, walking \r\nfor four nights with a group of friends. \"We walked at night, so sometimes you \r\ncan barely see. You're falling over rocks, and everything you touch has thorns. \r\nWe could see the helicopters in the valleys below us, but they didn't fly into \r\nthe mountains where we were.\"<\/p>\r\n
Sebastian and Abel were speaking to a reporter in La Perra Flaca, an \r\nimmigrant barrio of trailer homes in Cochise County, in southeast Arizona. It is \r\nthe destination for many immigrants. They work in the chili fields and try to \r\nearn enough money to send some home. This can be difficult. Most migrant \r\nfarmworkers in the U.S. work 120 days a year, according to the Labor Department. \r\nTheir average income is only $5,000 to $7,000 a year. Nonetheless, Mexican \r\nimmigrants send home $8 billion dollars a year--the largest source of foreign \r\nexchange in the Mexican economy after petroleum exports.<\/p>\r\n
July 1, a group of faith community activists in Tucson, Arizona held a press \r\nconference to announce the formation of the \"Samaritan Patrol,\" which will \r\nmaintain daily patrols of border areas, looking to assist migrants who are in \r\ndanger from the harsh conditions. The Samaritan Patrol is supported by nine \r\nreligious groups and includes Quaker, Protestant, Catholic and Jewish \r\nsupporters.<\/p>\r\n
Speaking at the press conference was John Fife, pastor of Southside \r\nPresbyterian Church, and one of the founders 20 years ago of the Sanctuary \r\nMovement--a network of over 300 churches that sheltered immigrants from Central \r\nAmerica. \"From the perspective of faith communities,\" he said, \"it is essential \r\nthat we do this. We have to cry out for an end to the policies that have led to \r\nrecord- setting migrant deaths. It is a sin.\"<\/p>\r\n
The urgency of their actions was underlined by the fact that two days before, \r\nthe deaths of two more immigrants were reported by police of the Tohono O'odham \r\nNation. A 55-year-old immigrant was found with two friends, and died after being \r\ntaken into custody. And the body of an 18-year-old migrant who had died some \r\ntime earlier was discovered.<\/p>\r\n
Meanwhile, the policy of the U.S. government remains brutally deadly: more \r\nMigra, more equipment, more weapons and more fences.<\/p>\r\n
All this will only make the situation more desperate for people like Maria, a \r\nwoman from Chihuahua, Mexico, who crossed the border with her husband and \r\ndaughter, to work and survive. She told one reporter, \"For me, there was no \r\nborder. I had to come here for my family. I've got to eat.\"<\/p>\r\n
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker \r\nOnline
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(The RW Online does not currently communicate via email.) \r\n<\/p>\r\n\n","contact":"","link":"www.rwor.org","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"“Operation Gatekeeper is the policy of death. It stains our land with the blood of our neighbors, and pierces the hearts of our people.” - Henry Ramon, tribal vice chairman of the Tohono O'odham Nation.","numcomment":2,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2002\/09\/rw_online_deadly_border_crossings.htm","filesize":"10.1 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2002\/09\/19074.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":19084,"heading":"Action Alert on New Border Fences","article":"http:\/\/www.activistsandiego.org\/alerts\/borderfence.html","author":"swia","parent_id":19074,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2002-09-15 18:39:47","modified":"2002-09-15 18:39:47","fileurl":""},{"id":19102,"heading":"Let's see...","article":"Maybe if they don't cross, they won't die...did you ever think about that? They have to eat? We all have to eat, Einstein, but that doesn't mean we have the resources to take in all the fuckers who "have to eat". Why don't they just stay in their lovely country they are all so proud of (that's why they don't bother to learn English, or fit in, for that matter), and try to fix it? Why don't you, RW, go down to mejeeco and protest them, since their economic situation is what's driving these morons to come here in the first place? Fucking dumb-ass...","author":"FA","parent_id":19074,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2002-09-16 03:06:15","modified":"2002-09-16 03:06:15","fileurl":""}]}