07/17/2010
The pundits and political suits have been telling us that fewer aliens are crossing because of better policing and the bad economy. Reporting of border violence is the trumped-up hysteria of crazed conservatives, according to Washington columnists.
But today’s death count shows that aliens are still coming in great numbers despite high unemployment numbers (at least for citizens) and despite the brutal desert heat of mid-summer.
Perhaps the crossers are exhibiting a reasonable response to President Obama’s repeated references to comprehensive amnesty. They may well be hoping to be amnestied if they can get established in America in time.
Immigrant deaths in Arizona desert soaring in July, AP, July 16, 2010
The number of deaths among illegal immigrants crossing the Arizona desert from Mexico is soaring so high this month that the medical examiner’s office that handles the bodies is using a refrigerated truck to store some of them, the chief examiner said Friday.
The bodies of 40 illegal immigrants have been brought to the office of Pima County Medical Examiner Dr. Bruce Parks since July 1. At that rate, Parks said the deaths could top the single-month record of 68 in July 2005 since his office began tracking them in 2000.
”Right now, at the halfway point of the month, to have so many is just a very bad sign,” he said. “It’s definitely on course to perhaps be the deadliest month of all time.”
From Jan. 1 to July 15, the office has handled the bodies of 134 illegal immigrants, up from 93 at the same time last year and 102 in 2008. In 2007, when the office recorded the highest annual deaths of illegal immigrants, 140 bodies had been taken there through July 15.
Parks said his office, which handles immigrant bodies from three counties, is currently storing roughly 250 bodies and had to start using a refrigerated truck because of the increase in immigrant deaths this month.
He said many of the bodies seem to be coming from the desert southwest of Tucson, where it tends to be hotter than eastern parts of the border or the Tucson metro area.
Authorities believe the high number of deaths are likely due to above-average and unrelenting heat in southern Arizona this month and ongoing tighter border security that pushes immigrants to more remote, rugged and dangerous terrain.
Another recent measure of the continuing invasion is CIS’ film compilation of illegals trooping by concealed cameras within the United States:
Hidden Cameras on the Arizona Border 2: Drugs, Guns and 850 Illegal Aliens
The hidden camera footage, acquired from a variety of sources, indicates that there is an unfortunate lack of federal law enforcement presence on Arizona’s federal land on the border in Nogales, in the Coronado National Forest (15 miles inside the border), and the Casa Grande Sector (80 miles inside the border). Also significant to the story are responses received as part of Freedom of Information Act requests made by Janice Kephart, the Center’s Director of National Security Studies, in August 2009. Featured in the film is a 2004 federal government PowerPoint showing the near-complete devastation of a borderland national park due to illegal-alien activity, highlighting the disconnect between the situation on the ground in Arizona and Washington rhetoric.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.