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As Desert Deaths Soar, a Morgue Grows Crowded
TUCSON - Dr. Bruce Parks unzips a white body bag on a steel gurney and gingerly lifts out a human skull and mandible, turning them over in his hands and examining the few teeth still in their sockets.
The body bag, coated with dust, also contains a broken pelvis, a femur and a few smaller bones found in the desert in June, along with a pair of white sneakers.
"These are people who are probably not going to be identified," said Dr. Parks, the chief medical examiner for Pima County. There are eight other body bags crowded on the gurney.
The Pima County morgue is running out of space as the number of Latin American immigrants found dead in the deserts around Tucson has soared this year during a heat wave.
The rise in deaths comes as Arizona is embroiled in a bitter legal battle over a new law intended to discourage illegal immigrants from settling here by making it a state crime for them to live or seek work.
But the law has not kept the immigrants from trying to cross hundreds of miles of desert on foot in record-breaking heat. The bodies of 57 border crossers have been brought in during July so far, putting it on track to be the worst month for such deaths in the last five years.
Since the first of the year, more than 150 people suspected of being illegal immigrants have been found dead, well above the 107 discovered during the same period in each of the last two years. The sudden spike in deaths has overwhelmed investigators and pathologists at the Pima County Medical Examiner's Office. Two weeks ago, Dr. Parks was forced to bring in a refrigerated truck to store the remains of two dozen people because the building's two units were full.
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15 Comments so far
Show AllStill want to advocate for cheap labor?
Year before last a friend of mine rescued four dehydrated men who had walked all the way from Guatamala. They were on their way to Long Island NY. I'm trying to imagine people who are willing to take on this lethal desert on foot being afraid of a lardbelly like Joe Arpaio, let alone a delusional dingbat like Jan Brewer. I'm more worried about racist Arizonans embarrassing themselves by parading their ignorance and blaming their own collapsed economy on the nearest immigrant than I am about the immigrants themselves. They will keep coming because they have no choice. And they will succeed in getting here because they are tougher and more determined than we are. The sun has killed 150 so far this year, and I suppose the Border Patrol has nabbed or killed a few more, but thousands made it across. If you think you can seal the border by passing some paper law, feel free to dream on.
Wow, these people are desperate to work!
I reckon they are and they are to be admired for their guts, but not for their brains. If they can't cross the border legally then they can stay in Guatemala or where ever. We can't afford to feed, clothe and otherwise support every courageous hardworking person south of the Rio Grande. I'd love to see other governors with as much spine as Jan Brewer.
Well Iam sure that will make some Arizona residents sleep better, and they will all get jobs now. Those pesky grape pickers....good riddens.....NOT
The Arizona laws were put in place to enflame the issue and distract from the causes - NAFTA and CAFTA and World Bank and IMF policies that are wrecked Central America and are wrecking us now. Corporations want people fighting with each other, thinking this is about racism, rather than local economies needing to protect themselves, and everyone needing to undo "free trade" ... "agreements."
"Corporations want people fighting with each other..."
Too right!
While entrenched in survival fight (and that goes for millions of Americans too) the bigger picture gets lost.
It is a kind of 'Shock Doctrine' by attrition.
All these bodies, one of the prices for our Red Herring, neo conservative hysteria. The border is porous, and will remain so. There is not a god damn thing anyone can do about it. Ever try stopping ants from getting to your larder? Well, Mexicans and other latinos are even more desperate than ants to get to a place where they can find sustenance for themselves and their families. If you want to stop illegal immigration, you will have to stop the conditions that cause it. The United States will never do that as long as it is ruled by corporations. They need cheap labor. Most Americans will not do the kind of work for the kind of pay that illegals do. These people are desperate. American labor is getting more and more desperate, but it will be a while before corporations find an indigenous work force as desperate as that in Latin America.
Perez-Rocha: Misguided U.S. economic policies drive many Mexicans .....
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/19-6
"These economic policies tend to concentrate wealth. They're based on what's often called the "Washington consensus" because they're designed and dictated from institutions based in the U.S. capital like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund."
Well said George, very well said.
get to a place where they can find sustenance for themselves and their families.
Somebody needs to tell them that they won't find anything here, our larders are are looking very sparse also.
What a tragic loss of life. How desperate conditions must be for these people to try so hard to reach el norte.
Sadly they are merely additional victims of the global class war. I firmly believe that this entire issue of "illegal immigrants" is designed to keep the masses from identifying the true enemies. Name one time that an illegal immigrant ran a hedge fund that received millions in bonuses after robbing investors. Name one time that an illegal immigrant was C.E.O. of a bank that sucked billions of tax dollars, received millions in bonuses and salaries will foreclosing on middle class homes. Name one time that an illegal immigrant "lost track" of billions of dollars in Iraq. Every time I ask these questions I am accused of fomenting class warfare. Wake up, we are in a class war with the top 5% who control over 95% of the wealth and they are winning! Eat the rich. They have been eating us for generations.
Tony Hayward?
Rupert Murdoch?
AIPAC?
Just starting here, jump right in an add your own elite immigrants, fuur-innners, etcetera. Those members of the decider class who are not citizens of the USA or who are active citizens of another country whose interests and designs they put ahead of their "own" - all of whom manage to control our policies in ways we "lower class" USA'ns don't.
How much more inhumane can a society get? What has gotten into these people? This isn't 'patriotism', this is plain MURDER! For shame.