A death vigil on the border

TIJUANA – Like a family caring for the grave of a loved one, José Rufino Casio and his two daughters tend a section of the border fence where hundreds of their countrymen are memorialized with wooden crosses.

In the United States, people who cross the border without proper documents are called illegal immigrants. But in Mexico, they are known as heroes who are trying to find work to give their families better lives.

"It's sad," said Casio, a retired truck driver who does what he can to honor those who died on the journey. "They come with much illusion, but they never go home."

Crossing the border has always been dangerous, but never have the deaths that occur along the 2,000-mile boundary line been so closely scrutinized, debated and politicized.

U.S. Border Patrol agents fear this summer will be an especially deadly one, because of a severe drought in southern Arizona where many of the crossings take place. Twenty-one people have died since June 6 trying to cross through the Sonoran desert of Arizona south of Tucson, including two girls, 11 and 12, whose bodies were found in recent days.

About 1,980 migrants have died trying to cross the border since 1995, when activists and academics began monitoring the effects of San Diego's Operation Gatekeeper and other U.S. border security measures. That figure is based on data compiled by Mexican consulates in the United States and Mexico's Foreign Ministry.

Although the Border Patrol doesn't dispute the number, it uses a figure of about 1,370 deaths. The Border Patrol didn't begin collecting data until 1998, and it doesn't tabulate deaths on the Mexican side of the border.

"Judging from what's happened summer after summer it's a foregone conclusion that we'll hit the 2,000 (deaths) milestone soon," said Claudia Smith, director of the Oceanside-based California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation's Border Project.

Deaths along I–5 Before Operation Gatekeeper began in 1994, San Diego was one of the primary points for illegal border crossings and deaths. Hundreds died in vehicle accidents, drownings and in attacks by bandits. So many were struck by vehicles on Interstate 5 that warning signs were posted with a drawing of a family running. Joseph Wambaugh dramatized the violence in his book "Lines and Shadows." Now, however, with a greater concentration of agents in urban border areas, most of the deaths occur far from public view, with bodies showing up one or two at a time in hostile, remote areas of California, Arizona and Texas. Last year a group of 14 perished near Yuma, Ariz., in a desert area called "Devil's Path." Recently at least six people were shot, perhaps by the Mexican army, while crossing illegally through a smuggling corridor in the Imperial Valley desert.

The Border Patrol has made more than 5,500 rescues in the past three years and keeps searching for ways to stop the deaths.

But "border deaths are an intrinsic part of the migration pattern," said Roy Villarreal, assistant chief at Border Patrol headquarters in Washington, D.C. "They were around before Gatekeeper and unfortunately they will continue to exist."

Villarreal said the Border Patrol is still years away from fully implementing its Southwest border control plan, but the numbers speak for themselves.

Border Patrol apprehensions, which are used to measure the flow of illegal immigration, are dropping for the second consecutive year.

Last year, when security was tightened because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, apprehensions dropped by 24 percent. And this year the Border Patrol is on a pace to record fewer than one million apprehensions for the first time since 1994. The recent slump in the U.S. economy may also have kept many from coming, immigration officials said.

There's debate over whether tougher enforcement has made the border more dangerous.

A study by the University of Houston Center for Immigration Research last year said the number of deaths in the desert, mountains and in the Imperial Valley's All-American Canal rose sharply – but the overall number increased only modestly because deaths declined in urban areas. The researchers concluded that border enforcement is being overemphasized as a cause of immigrant deaths, because crossing the border has always been dangerous.

But a recent study by the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California San Diego said no reliable data existed before the crackdowns, so it's still not clear whether the number of deaths is up or down.

Wayne Cornelius, who headed the study, said that despite the decline in apprehensions, U.S. policy has made crossing the border more dangerous, by "rechanneling" migrants into more hazardous areas. It has also raised fees charged by smugglers, he said.

He also believes making the journey more difficult, without cracking down on the businesses who hire them, has been ineffective. The number of undocumented workers in the United States grew in the 1990s, he said, citing other academic studies.

Cornelius said the decline in apprehensions is tied to many factors, including the likelihood that fewer illegal immigrants are returning to Mexico for visits because they're afraid they won't be able to get back into the United States.

Statistics show decline Border deaths haven't dropped at the same rate as apprehensions. Borderwide apprehensions dropped 24 percent last year, but migrant deaths dropped only 12 percent, according to Border Patrol statistics. In the Imperial Valley east of San Diego, apprehensions dropped 27 percent, while the number of deaths rose from 77 to 95.

As of June 13, deaths at the border were down 35 percent compared with last year and apprehensions were down 31 percent, the Immigration and Naturalization Service said. But the summer season is just beginning, and the Border Patrol has rescued more than 100 people in the Arizona desert in recent weeks.

The Border Patrol has boosted its media campaign in Mexico's interior to warn would-be migrants about the dangers they face, and it is stepping up its aerial surveillance and using horses and hovercraft to patrol the Imperial Valley's All-American Canal where many have drowned. A series of binational meetings has led to stepped-up search and rescue efforts on both sides of the border.

The Border Patrol has also attached a face to what it considers a main source of the problem.

Last month it released its first "Most Wanted" list of illegal immigrant smugglers in California. The eight men featured on the posters are believed to control smuggling rings that make millions of dollars by charging people as much as $3,000 apiece to be taken across the border.

"The smugglers are the guys who routinely place people in danger," said San Diego Border Patrol spokesman Ben Bauman. "They're routinely involved in pursuits. They're crossing people in the mountains in the winters and crossing them in the desert in the summer."

Fox hears protesters While activists on both sides of the border blame the deaths on tougher U.S. border enforcement, they also hold Mexico accountable. Earlier this month a group demonstrated outside the Tijuana Cultural Center where Mexican President Vicente Fox spoke to a gathering of Hispanic journalists, most of them from the United States. They carried a banner with the drawing of an odometer showing the most recent death count and the caption: "How many more?" The activists also placed a billboard near the San Ysidro Port of Entry with a photo of a migrant grave site in the Imperial Valley with the question: "Who cares about the migrants?"

Fox, who has called the deaths unacceptable, is trying to negotiate an immigration package with the United States that includes legalization for millions of undocumented Mexicans and an expanded guest-worker program.

Cornelius said Mexico is taking "the course of least resistance" by not dealing directly with the border deaths in its negotiations with the United States. But he said Fox's approach is more realistic than trying to persuade President Bush to loosen restrictions on the border.

Claudia Smith said she recognizes that the U.S. border strategy is unlikely to change anytime soon, but her group plans to continue to "cry foul" in the hope that international pressure will make the United States rethink its border strategy.

"I have no objection to sealing the entire border, because at that point there is no risk," Smith said. "But you can't funnel economic migrants that we give jobs to into the desert."

While the debate continues, José Rufino Casio and his daughters prepare a section of the steel border fence for repainting. They say those who die trying to cross into the United States deserve respect.

"If their families ever come here, they'll see they have not been forgotten," said his daughter, Mayela.

"But in Mexico, they are known as heroes who are trying to find work to give their families better lives." (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Would the "mainstream" media portray native-born Americans just working "off-the-books" to escape Washington's rapacious tax levels as doing it to "give their families better lives?"

Would any U.S. politician portray native-born American waitresses not reporting all their tips to the IRS as doing it to "give their families better lives?"

There is real racism here. Only Hispanics - not European-Americans nor blacks - are allowed to commit federal felonies in the name of "give their families better lives."

Get the sticker!

What a touching story! Jose and his brave family building and maintaining wooden crosses in memory of those criminals who died breaking the law, trying to illegally sneak across the border. I'd like to contribute to his efforts. Anyone know where to send all this wood?

These deaths are the result of the greed and lack of concern of the Mexican government and the crooks and drug lords who run it. If they cared about the well being of their citizens they would prevent people from risking death by stoping them. In the US, we prevent people from doing dumb things that put them at risk. Look at seat belts; you can get a $200 ticket for not wearing your seat belt and endangering yourself. The Mexican government should stop murdering its citizens and begin preventing them from illeagally breaking into America and, perhaps, dieing in the process.

I agree. A couple of friends of mine, went into Mexico the weekend before last, to purchase some clay pottery & glassware for their shop. Just before crossing the boarder from Mexico into California, the Mexican Boarder Patrol asked them to pull over, because of the seatbelts. They were both asked to step out of the car & asked the driver to hand over his wallet. While both my friends were being questioned, there was another patrolman searching the trunk & the inside of the car. The other patrolman handed back the wallet with no money inside and they were both allowed to go arhead and cross.

US BORDER PATROL, MEXICAN BORDER, APPREHENSION INFORMATION

Date Range: 09/12/2001 To 06/11/2002
(last updated 06/11/2002)

In the 9 months since September 11th, the US Border Patrol has apprehended 661,605 illegal aliens attempting to cross the US/Mexico border illegally.

These are the official numbers per Border Patrol Sector:

San Diego Sector - 69,749
El Centro Sector - 75,093
Yuma Sector - 31,245
Tucson Sector - 233,215
El Paso Sector - 64926
Marfa Sector - 8,553
Del Rio Sector - 53,794
Laredo Sector - 62,149
McAllen Sector - 62,881

Some of these apprehensions are what we call recidivist apprehensions. A recidivist apprehension, is an illegal that has been apprehended before. That apprehension may have been during the reporting period or it may have been before the reporting period and the illegal may have been apprehended several times.

For this presentation, I will subtract the recidivist apprehensions from the total apprehensions. 661,605 - 256,882 = 404,723.

This gives our base figure of new illegal alien apprehensions. This figure is not 100% accurate, as some apprehensions go unreported and we have removed the aliens that have been apprehended by the INS before.

So, since September 11th, the US Border Patrol has apprehended approximately 404,723 new illegal aliens attempting to illegally cross the US/Mexico border.

The Border Patrol estimate that they apprehend only 20% of the illegal aliens crossing into the United States. That means 4 illegal aliens get through for every one apprehended.

Independent Immigration experts estimate that the Border Patrol apprehends only 10% of the illegal aliens crossing into the United States. That means 9 illegal aliens get through for every one apprehension.

For this presentation, I will use the Border Patrol estimate of 20%.

So, if the Border Patrol apprehended 404,723 new illegal aliens since September 11th, the number of illegal aliens that made it into the United States undetected would be approximately 1,618,892. Although it could be as high as 3,642,507.

This is an average of over 6,000 illegal aliens crossing into the United States from Mexico, undetected daily.

You must remember that these figures only reflect approximately 60% of the illegal aliens attempting to enter the US. I have not included the official US Ports of Entry along the US/Mexico border or the US/Canada border and I have not included any airport or interior apprehensions or the Border Patrol apprehensions along the US/Canada border. Using those numbers, would push the daily total of illegals entering the US to over 10,000.

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