Five border-crossers die in Southern Arizona over the weekend

Arizona Daily Star ^ | 30 June 2003 | Ignacio Ibarra

[JackelopeBreeder]

(Short lived link.)

The weekend deaths of five illegal border crossers brings to 60 the number of people known to have died trying to cross the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector, officials said. Among the latest fatalities: a 29-year-old Mexican woman who died of heat exposure; a woman who died after a fall from a railroad bridge; two people who died in a car crash; and a man whose body was found on the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation near Little Tucson.

The agency's fiscal year starts Oct. 1.

Zita Islas Uribe, 29, of Hidalgo, Mexico, died sometime Saturday, two days after she and her cousin, Angel Jesus Islas, 21, arrived at the border at Naco, said Miguel Escobar Valdez, the Mexican Consul in Douglas. They crossed the border Thursday with about a dozen other illegal entrants led by a hired guide. Their destination, according to Escobar, was a reunion with the woman's father in Chicago.

"By Friday, the woman was feeling ill and having a hard time keeping up, and at a certain point she fainted," said Escobar, who interviewed the woman's cousin on Sunday. Her traveling companions tried to revive her, and then carried her for some distance, before she passed out again. The group left the woman at some point and headed to the nearby San Pedro River, intending to bring her some water. By the time they'd reached the river, however, the smuggler had convinced the group to continue on without the faltering woman.

Her cousin stayed behind and returned to the woman, finding her dead, said Escobar. Islas walked to a road and flagged down a passing U.S. Border Patrol agent, but was too disoriented to tell the agent where his cousin's body was located. A Border Patrol helicopter spotted her body Sunday afternoon about eight miles north of the border.

On the same day, Border Patrol agents found the body of a Mexican woman in a dry wash beneath a railroad bridge about three miles east of Naco, near Bisbee Junction Road.

"Presumption is that she was walking along the railroad tracks and as she walked across the bridge, she slipped and fell nearly 40 feet, fracturing her cranium," he said. Escobar said the woman carried no identification papers and remains unidentified.

Also on Sunday, a U.S. Border Patrol pilot spotted the body of a man near Little Tucson. The case was turned over to Tohono O'odham police, said Frank Amarillas, a spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol.

Two other migrants died in a pickup truck crash Sunday at the western edge of the sector south of Interstate 8 near Gila Bend, Amarillas said. Three others were injured in the accident, including one person who was airlifted to a Phoenix hospital for treatment. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Department is investigating the case.

[JackelopeBreeder]

I really hope young Islas knows the name of that coyote and narcs him out. As far as I'm concerned he's guilty of murder.

And the government of Mexico shares his guilt.

[JackelopeBreeder]

Ping!

[Blood of Tyrants]

Hell, for that matter, the US government shares the guilt for encouraging illegal immigration. And BOTH parties are equally guilty.

[janetgreen]

but..but..Tom Ridge says that his homeland security department is making great strides in protecting the border..

[HiJinx]

Tom Ridge says that his homeland security department is making great strides in protecting the border

I'm only halfway through Michelle Malkin's Invasion, and I can already spot that comment as more of INS's SS, DD.

[Arpege92]

Ditto!

[SCalGal]

Walking through the desert in this heat.

DUH!

[judgeandjury]

Five border-crossers die in Southern Arizona over the weekend

Should say:

Five criminal aliens die in Southern Arizona over the weekend

[FITZ]

Uh, we give visas for that, don't we?

Not if they're bringing in drugs, are wanted for crimes they've already committed here ----or if the father in Chicago is also here illegally.

[Dogs in the field]

You are absolutely right! The federal government as well as the State of Arizona, and the media should be indicted for murder for encouraging illegal border crossings.

As a resident of Arizona, I can't emphazize enough how all of these things combined lure thousands of illegals to put their lives at risk.

[dennisw]

Invade America ....... and you just might die in the desert. Am I supposed to care?

[FITZ]

And the government of Mexico shares his guilt.

I'm reading this pretty interesting Opinion piece in the Mexican paper that says just that.

Fox usa a los pobres

" Eso quiere decir que el mejor programa económico de Fox fue no hacer nada para que la gente se vaya como mano de obra barata a Estados Unidos y disminuir la pobreza gracias a las remesas de trabajadores mexicanos explotados en el extranjero."

This discusses how Fox's best economic program was to do absolutely nothing so that the Mexican people would have to leave and go to the US and send money back to Mexico. It seems that it's not just that he's an incompetent leader, he actually is intentional about what he's doing to these people.

The article then goes on about Fox creating a stateless people who are physically displaced, cut off from their own country, culture, family and language. He is sending his people off to another culture that they have no identity with, they aren't part of the US culture, they aren't legal here, etc.

[Ditter]

People are dying because of the heat. I am a resident of Texas & we have the same thing happening here. These people KNOW its hot in the summer, why do they cross now. I very nearly had a heat stroke in Oct on the Rio Grande. Had it not been for a cooler of ice & plenty of water when I got back to the truck, I'd be dead now.

[Tancredo Fan]

Invade America ....... and you just might die in the desert. Am I supposed to care?

It would appear that these nimrods have committed suicide.

[JackelopeBreeder]

I've been reading between the lines here and reconstructing what probably happened. I am very familiar with both areas here in Cochise County.

I doubt the older woman was alone. She probably crossed with others and a coyote at night just east of The Great Wall of Arizona and they were following the railroad tracks to the south end of Bisbee and one of the sahe houses there. That abandoned railroad bridge is not in good repair; one misstep in the dark and you're toast.

The younger woman and her companions probably crossed just west of the Great Wall and followed that set of tracks northwestwards for a ride somewhere north of Hereford. It's only about 8 miles north of the border as the crow flies, but more like 15 to 20 if you're skulking through the brush and arroyos. Very little shade to speak of until you reach the San Pedro River.

[JackelopeBreeder]

You put it very mildly. I just fed the article to Babel Fish a chunk at a time; this is not a friendly action at all. It's time to flush the toilet that is Mexican politics.

[FITZ]

I wonder if the women were pregnant ---very possible and that would make the trip that much more dangerous.

[HiJinx]

There just is no safe way to get to the highways at night without exposing yourself to the BP.

The desert is a harsh mistress, she'll kill you in ways you never thought possible if you don't respect her.