106 Border-Crossers Die in Arizona in 2000

More than 100 people have died this year crossing illegally from Mexico into Arizona, already doubling the number who died in all of last year.

Increased patrols in California and Texas have been pushing more border crossers to choose Arizona, and stricter enforcement around border cities is prompting many to cross in remote desert areas, officials say.

Authorities already have apprehended 724,000 border crossers in Arizona in 2000, compared to 563,000 in all of last year. The death toll reflects that increase--106 this year compared to 43 in all of 1999.

“Anytime you have the sheer numbers that are being apprehended, everything else is bound to increase,” said Alfredo Casillas, spokesman for the Border Patrol in Yuma.

“We have taken every step to keep this from happening. We are doing all we can.”

The toll could be even higher because of deaths not yet discovered in the rugged territory, officials acknowledge.

While a U.S. Border Patrol spokesman in Yuma called the 32 deaths in his sector a record, officials in the Tucson sector, which reported 74 deaths, wouldn’t go so far. They said their records only date back two years and therefore they couldn’t make a comparison.

Miguel Escobar, Mexican consul in Douglas, a border town about 100 miles south of Tucson, said no one is to blame.

America’s strong economy, which pays a wage about eight times higher than in Mexico, is motivating immigrants to make the dangerous trek, Escobar said.

“These are people trying to get a better job so they can provide for their families, so they can improve their lot,” Escobar said.

But the Border Patrol said smugglers paid by the illegal immigrants aren’t warning their customers adequately of the harsh conditions and the long journey through the desert.

The Mexican government has taken out advertisements trying to educate would-be border-crossers on the desert’s dangers.