Big Increase in Immigrant Border-Crossing Deaths Reported on Border Alex Gomez - USA Today
go to original March 19, 2013

In a rural Texas county, an increasing number of illegal immigrants are dying before they can complete the journey to what they hoped would be a better life. (NBC News)

Fewer people are illegally crossing America's southwest border with Mexico, but the region saw a big increase in immigrant deaths in 2012, according to a report set to be released Tuesday.

U.S. Border Patrol identified 477 deaths along the southwest border, up from 375 the year before, according to the report from the National Foundation for American Policy, an Arlington, Va.-based group that researches immigration issues. That 27% increase in deaths comes even as total migration from Mexico has slowed in recent years.

Stuart Anderson, executive director of the foundation and author of the report, said the rise in deaths may add support to the drive for a complete immigration overhaul that is being negotiated in Congress.

"The primary reason that people are dying is that there's not a legal work visa for them to come legally," Anderson said. "These are rational people who are trying to work and support their families. If you had a widely available, legal work visa ... they would choose to come in legally."

Part of the reason for the rise in deaths is the increase in Border Patrol agents that has driven immigrants to more remote, treacherous areas along the border.

Read the rest at azcentral.com

The video highlights some of the work that No More Deaths does and some of the inhumane occurrences which have happened on the U.S./Mexico border. (J. Rodriguez)

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