Immigrant deaths along the U.S.-Mexico border

According to the U.S. Border Patrol, 1,954 people died crossing the U.S.-Mexico border between the years 1998-2004, from all causes.retrieved 14 May 2006. In 2004, 325 persons are reported to have died. The reasons and possible causes are numerous. 14 May 2006. So far in 2006, 56 deaths have been reported.[http://regulus.azstarnet.com/borderdeaths/results.php?month=00&year=2006" target="_blank" >^*, retrieved 14 May 2006.

Border tensions

The deaths have caused tension between the United States and other countries, particularly Mexico, from where a majority of illegal immigrants that enter the United States through the Southwestern borders come. General consulates across the Southwest United States, in particular those of Hispanic countries, have condemned the deaths of immigrants across the border.

Recent deaths

Since the middle 1990s, Border Patrol police in the United States have been dealing with the deaths of illegal immigrants, particularly in the state of Arizona. The number of deaths of illegal immigrants in the United States-Mexico border has been increasing on a regular, yearly basis since the middle 1990s, garnering the attention of news media and law enforcement alike.

Possible causes

The reasons and possible causes are numerous ranging from accidental and natural causes to intentional .

Natural causes

The United States-Mexico barrier was built to detour illegal immigration from areas with high numbers of illegal crossings. Now illegal immigrants try to cross the Sonoran Desert and the Baboquivari Mountain in Arizona.

This has caused the leading causes of death to be natural death causes, including, among others, heat stroke, dehydration, and hypothermia. Significant numbers of illegal immigrants also die in car accidents and other accidental causes.

Intentional killings

It is often very difficult for the police to identify the suspects, because many groups might be involved. Authorities think that most of the deaths that were violent in nature were orchestrated by illegal immigrant smugglers, known as coyotes .

The coyotes, a term used to describe people who smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States for a profit, are infamous for the way in which they treat their clients, who are also often deemed as human cargo. Cases of rape and beatings by coyotes have been reported by illegal immigrants who were smuggled into the United States by coyotes. The number of times this has happened, however, is hard to tell because so many illegal immigrants fear they would be deported if they went to the police for help and because the coyotes often threaten to hurt their families that are still in their native countries.

Because of the violent nature of some coyotes, they are among the first groups of people that the police point at when they find bodies of illegal immigrants who have apparently been murdered across the American border.

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