IN THE LAST DECADE, HUNDREDS HAVE DIED CROSSING ARIZONA’S DESERT. IF ONLY WE KNEW WHO THEY WERE.
The Arizona Daily Star, a Tucson newspaper, has been tracking migrant deaths in the desert for years. If it weren’t for this plucky newspaper, and the handful of reporters and editors who have stuck with this story, we wouldn’t have a handle on how many died.
Virtually every major newspaper in the United States has published stories on migrant deaths, often without giving credit to the Arizona Daily Star for its consistent tallying.
Now the Star has published a six-page special report, ”A Decade of Death,” that takes readers inside Arizona’s desert death chamber and reads like a heart-wrenching detective story. You feel as though you’re standing right next to the scientists at the morgue, inspecting mummified flesh and white bone, hoping to piece together an identity from a note found in a jeans pocket, or a photo in a dusty backpack.
(In one case, the Star reported, a head was missing from a body recovered in the desert. The scientists attribute the decapitation to animal activity, but still, they aren’t entirely sure. Is this headless corpse that Arizona’s governor, Jan Brewer, had been referring to when she said there were beheadings in the desert?)
The Star’s online media package that accompanies the story enhances the immediacy. If you don’t believe me, check out this creepy but mesmerizing audio slideshow.
When increased border enforcement in California and Texas funneled so much illegal immigration through Arizona, officials may have thought that Arizona’s harsh deserts would act as a sort of natural barrier, keeping migrants out.
The bones in the desert refute that theory.
Deaths in the Arizona desert are part of the failed vision of the federal immigration enforcement.
This is probably one of the most inhumane policies imposed to immigrants where the all mighty government of the USA is betting people will die in the desert. Politicians are closing their eyes, avoiding responsibility to deal with NAFTA impoverished campesinos or the jobless former maquiladora employees. Things are not getting better now when people are being threatened with the despicable violence of drug cartels with USA made semi automatic weapons and bunch of NRA promoted ammos.
However the well known dangers and perils of crossing does not deter persons who may risk their own lives for the promise of the American DREAM.