205 migrants die hard, lonely deaths (Barf Alert)

AZcentral ^ | Oct. 16, 2003 | Susan Carroll

[f7Oshawn]

It is a lonely place to die, out in the soft sandy washes. The desert floor, with its volcanic rock, can reach 160 degrees. Most people go down slowly.

Blood starts to seep into the lungs. Exposed skin burns and the sweat glands shut down. Little hemorrhages, tiny leaks, start in the heart.

[HiJinx]

Some migrants claw at the ground with their fingernails, trying to hollow out a cooler spot to die. Others pull themselves through the sand on their bellies, like they're swimmers or snakes. The madness sometimes prompts people to slit their own throats or to hang themselves from trees with their belts.

Read any Western fiction - Louis L'Amour, Luke Short, Zane Grey - and you will see these descriptions of death in the desert. I seriously challenge the author to prove that this is what is happening to the illegal immigrants.

I'm not about to diminish the reality of such deaths, but I resent the use of hyperbole and fiction to sensationalize a political position. AZCentral is the on-line presence of the Arizona Republic, once a respected conservative publication.

[RoughDobermann]

Has in occurred to you that the only thing that distinguishes you from those who dies in the desert is luck?

How about those of us that legally immigrated to this great country?

[3catsanadog]

If the USA does not want them entering, then why don't we tighten up the border.

Answer: We do want them

Correction - the politicans want them for votes.

[Little Ray]

And an unwillingness to break the law or invade somebody else's country?

[swarthyguy]

Repeat : WE, AMericans WANT These people here. That's why we hire them.

You, no, but generally a lot of commerce has become dependent on these people.

[jimt]

Gloating over the deaths of innocents is pretty sleazy and perverse.

I musta missed the gloating part.

Of course it's tragic those people died. But they died as a result of their own actions, or their parents' actions. Yes, it wasn't a pretty death, and no one should wish it on anyone.

But the fact is that illegal aliens are a major cause of problems in America.

205 "migrants" died hard lonely deaths - true and tragic.

10 million illegals are a huge burden on 250 million Americans - also true, also tragic, and a far larger problem.

[Lazamataz]

Sure we do. We hire them. All over the place. Hotels, developers, landscapers, factories and farms.

Illegally. You're supposed to provide several proofs of citizenship nowadays. Companies that defy that law need to be shut down.

[Incorrigible]

I wonder what would happen to a young boy who, with his mother and other close friends, braves the open sea trying to escape oppression and come to the United States.  He witnesses his fellow freedom seekers drown and eaten by sharks.  He owes his own life to dolphins and a fisherman.  He is welcomed by loving family in the United States.

What would happen to that immigrant, who, because of his country of origin and by circumstance, would actually be legal once setting foot on US soil?  Would our government honor him with freedom or condemn him to tyranny?

Plenty of European immigrants died ugly deaths on ill maintained steam ships too.

America is obviously worth dying for.

Thank you God for allowing me to be born here.

[swarthyguy]

And the whole game plan to legalise them eventually is for their taxes to boost social security.

BTW, politicians are Americans. Sure they want votes. They all do.

Why do you think Bush is letting this happen.

ANd now we're going to hand out drivers licenses to them.

So, at what level does America not want these people.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

LOL! Times have only changed because you are living in the present without examining the past!

Do you think the Hurons had a different perception of the Hudson valley being "settled"?

Do the vast number of immigrants in the 1840's, 1880's and 1920's build within you the same anger that the immigrants of today bring? And those immigrants were "illegal" as well for the most part.

We as Conservatives talk big about how "the market will balance itself" and "Freedom and Liberty are basic human rights", but we have so little faith in our own mantras. The illegal immigrants do not come here due to their hatred of you, or their wanting to get something for nothing. They come because life is so bad in Mexico that they see more hope in risking their lives in the hands of the coyotes who may very well just kill them or leave them locked in a tractor trailer to die.

Think about that. Your life is so bad, that you would risk everything to come to the land of freedom.

They don't care about you or your little complaints, they are risking their lives so they don't have to live like animals.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

Well, duh! And your point is? If the criminals seek to infiltrate and then say they will overthrow the government in the southwestern states, hasta la vista, las espaldas mojadas.

[steve8714]

They are better off than the elderly in France.
We also have more traffic deaths in a holiday weekend.
This is a high risk undertaking.
Do we have independent verification that these people were all "starving"in their home countries? Or, were some of them carrying other than rosaries in their sacks? Of course, we would not hear about these, would we?
Perhaps if these countries weren't gun controlled, the folks wouldn't feel the need to leave.
Perhaps the reason revolution is so common in Latin America is that it is needed from time to time.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

This past year, the bodies of 205 undocumented immigrants were found in Arizona.

Sad, but 205 more votes for Dean next year.

[swarthyguy]

Then focus your anger on the companies hiring these people and the politicians who allow it to happen.

Gloating over the deaths of these unfortunates is demeaning.

[Little Ray]

Its called assumption of risk. If you do something dangerous and get killed, it is nobody's fault but your own, no matter what idiot lawyers and "bleeding heart" traitors say. There is no obligation to help these people. They have no right to be here. It is in the interestes of our own national security to STOP these people. Get it?

[RoughDobermann]

Gloating over the deaths of these unfortunates is demeaning

Personally, I'm neither gloating nor celebrating. Nor am I sad. These people chose to illegally enter our country and died trying. Somewhat akin to some perp trying to enter one's house. Should we mourn when that perp's head is blown off?

[Just another Joe]

Repeat : WE, AMericans WANT These people here. That's why we hire them.

Read: WE, businessmen that don't give a hoot about the law either. All we care about is making the almighty dollar, just like most politicians. THAT'S why we hire them illegaly.

And you really think that these illegals are adding value to our economy?

Most of the money they make is sent back to their country of origin, where ever that may be. Many of them are of the mind that they broke the law to enter this land of the free, why not break another, if it's convenient and they feel they won't get caught, to make a few more bucks.

I have no problem at all with legal immigrants, whether they are citizens or not.
I'm married to one.
Illegal immigrants deserve, IMO, IF they make it at all, NOTHING except a short stay in the pokey and a cheap trip back to their country of origin

[kaktuskid]

A publication that has long been Gannettstitized!

[SAMWolf]

Life just sucks some times, don't it.

[GoRepGo]

"The open borders are in invitation to disaster. If the government won't do anything about it the citizens soon will need to."

"According to The Arizona Republic, Matthew Paul Hoffman was sentenced to 120 days in jail, and Alexander David Dumas to 30 days in jail for their citizen's arrest of a group of illegal entrants that had successfully violated the American border and evaded attention of the Border Patrol."

So now, (thanks to this ridiculous show of "American Court Justice") - just how many Americans will be willing to risk jailtime to enforce the laws that our overburdened Border Patrol won't?