Border Deaths Increase

As DHS Secretary Napolitano announces increased resources at the border, we have to wonder how more deaths it will take before we realize that the solution to the undocumented immigration challenge will not be found in militarizing the border. I have long argued that Operation Gatekeeper, instituted under the Clinton administration, set up a death trap for border migrants and represents a shameful aspect of our immigration policies.

Arthur Rotstein reports on increasing border deaths for the Associated Press:

Migrant deaths along the U.S.-Mexico border have risen in the past six months despite a nearly 25 percent drop in arrests by the Border Patrol, according to patrol statistics.

The number of migrant deaths along the roughly 2,000-mile border increased by nearly 7 percent between Oct. 1, 2008, and March 31, 2009, though apprehensions of people crossing illegally from Mexico into Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California decreased in the same period from a year ago, the patrol said.

The remains of 128 people were found during the six-month period, compared to 120 in the same period a year earlier, the patrol said. But apprehensions of those crossing illegally from Mexico into the United States decreased more than 24 percent compared to the number of arrests from the same period a year ago. Click here for the full story.

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