 US BORDER POLICY COMES UNDER FIRE AFTER MIGRANT DEATHS
One of the survivors of a deadly border crossing last week has been arrested and charged with smuggling. Fourteen people died after being abandoned in the Arizona desert without adequate water. Officials believe two other people were involved in the smuggling, but have not identified any suspects. The person arrested faces the possibility of the death penalty if convicted.
In the wake of the tragedy, a number of human rights groups have become more vocal in their calls for changes to US border policy. The California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation held a demonstration at a paupers’ cemetery in Southern California where hundreds of unidentified border crossers are buried each year. Along with the American Civil Liberties Union, the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation has filed a request with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that it urge a change in US border enforcement strategies. Other advocacy organizations are contemplating similar action.
The deaths have focused new attention on the development of US border strategy since 1995, when Operation Gatekeeper in San Diego and Operation Hold the Line in El Paso were launched. They were followed by similar crackdowns in other urban areas on the border. Whether the crackdowns are contributing to a decrease in the number of migrants is debatable, but it is clear that they are causing migrants to attempt to cross the border in remote areas where they face more risks.
Responding to these risks, which stem primarily from the heat and lack of water in the desert, a number of organizations have started campaigns to place water stations in the region. One group in Arizona and another in Mexico have begun creating such stations. It is impossible for migrants to carry all the water they need during the desert trek, and advocates hope that the water stations could help prevent deaths from dehydration. The Arizona group, Humane Borders, says that it had asked the US government for permission to erect stations on public land in Arizona, a request that was denied. The group’s president, Rev. Robin Hoover, says that had they been allowed to place the stations where they asked, they would have been accessible to the group that died last week.
| 
