Death on the Border Continues: The Banality of Evil

We have all heard about the slight decline in migration to the United States as a result of the economic downturn and the decline in apprehensions of undocumented migrants in the U.S./Mexico border region.  Ted Robbins of NPR reminds us, however, that, even though the number of people apprehended illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border is down more than 25 percent, “the rate of people dying while trying to cross is up.”  What does this mean?  It means that, as border enforcement increases, more migrants die.  That is why the Obama administration’s current immigration enforcement strategy — enforcement now, enforcement forever, is deeply disturbing.  It results in human misery of the of the saddest — and wholly unnecessary type — deaths; indeed, the deaths themselves are of the most ghastly, painful, and miserable variety, which should make us ashamed as a nation.

Sorry to be preachy but that what is truly at stake in the debate over immigration reform.

KJ