According to the July 17 edition of the paper, Mexico’s secretary of foreign relations, local police agencies, and county medical examiners in Arizona have recorded up to 121 bodies of people trying to cross into the United States found near the border. The Border Patrol has counted 78 deaths since October 2003. Last year the count was 139 fatalities—not including bodies recovered by agencies other than the Border Patrol.  
 
ABC initiative results in more deaths
Since March, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has been carrying out the “Arizona Border Control Initiative” along with local, state, and federal police agencies. The operation involves hundreds of cops and increased air surveillance through unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), or drones, and other aircraft to patrol that section of the border with Mexico.

Contrary to the government’s claim that the operation is aimed at reducing the number of deaths at the border, it has resulted in an increase in the number of deaths. The reason is that the growing militarization of the border is forcing immigrants to cross through more remote desert points.

“We believe the use of UAV and increased aviation operations will greatly enhance the capabilities of the more than 200 additionally deployed Border Patrol agents bringing the Tucson sector to more than 2,000 strong,” said DHS undersecretary Asa Hutchinson at the operation’s official launching in March.

In July, Michael Nicley, head of the Tucson sector of the Border Patrol, praised the “success” of the operation, saying that the agency is apprehending 80 percent of those attempting to cross through that area.

“That is absurd for him to say that they are capturing 80 percent,” Rev. Robin Hoover, of the Tucson-based Human Borders, told the Daily Star July 3. Hoover’s group sets up water and aid stations in the desert for immigrant workers making the trek. Water supplies are vital for the desert crossing. Most people who die after crossing the border are found in isolated areas of the mountains or in the desert.

“We keep finding people out that way,” Hoover said. “And they keep drinking the same levels of water.”

In response to the changes in the migration patterns as a result of the beefed-up measures, the Border Patrol is now shifting agents to those areas.

To reduce the pressure at the border, the migra has also begun a new “repatriation program” of Mexican-born workers detained in the Arizona-Sonora desert area. These immigrants are deported directly to various cities in Mexico, instead of the previous practice of being dropped off on the Mexican side of the border. They are taken deep into Mexico’s interior to make more difficult a quick turnaround and fresh attempts to cross the border.

This “pilot program,” which is scheduled to run through September, is expected to result in the deportations of 300 Mexicans per day. Some 2,566 people are already on the list to be flown out of the country under its auspices.  
 
Deaths on the job higher for Mexicans
These and other immigration measures implemented by the White House and the previous Democratic administration of William Clinton are not aimed at stopping the flow of immigration but keeping these workers terrorized so they can be super-exploited by employers across the United States. As a result, many of these immigrant workers get the lowest paid and most hazardous jobs.

An Associated Press study published in March concluded that Mexican-born workers in the United States die on the job at a significantly higher rate than their U.S.-born counterparts. The information used for the study came from interviews with workers, employers, government officials, as well as statistics from federal safety and population agencies, AP said.

The study said that Mexican-born workers are 80 percent more likely to be killed on the job today than U.S.-born workers, up from 30 percent in the mid-1990s. Over the last year, this on-the-job death rate increased at a faster pace than the overall increase in the Mexican population in the United States, AP reported. As the number of Mexican-born workers grew by about 50 percent, from 4 million to 6 million, the number of deaths on the job went up by about two-thirds, from 241 to 387, says the report. The latter figure peaked at 420 in 2001.

According to the study, while Mexican-born workers represent about 1 in 24 workers in the United States, 1 out of 14 deaths in the workplace are workers from Mexico.

The construction industry had the highest rate of fatalities on the job. About 1 in 3,100 Mexican-born construction laborers died at work, much higher than the rate among U.S.-born construction workers.  
 
 
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