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The Gazette from Cedar Rapids, Iowa • P9

Publication:
The Gazettei
Location:
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Issue Date:
Page:
P9
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

Sunday, June 6, 2021 9AThe 2021 The azette Washington Post sharp increase in the number of people cross- ing into the United States through remote desert areas along the U.S.-Mex- ico border has officials and rights advocates worried that this sum- mer will be especially lethal, with the potential for a spike in migrant deaths. Much of the Biden ad- border re- sponse in recent months has centered on caring for the unaccompanied minors who have arrived in record numbers, along with parents traveling with children. Those groups do not typically attempt to evade capture, and they usually seek out U.S. agents after crossing the border to request hu- manitarian protection. Adult migrants con- tinue to be the largest share of border crossers, however, and smuggling guides often send them through rugged desert and mountain areas where deaths from expo- sure rise with extreme heat.

U.S. agents took more than 111,000 single adult migrants into cus- tody in April, the high- est total in more than a decade, and the number increased again in May, according to preliminary enforcement data. going to be a bru- tal said Don White, a deputy in rural Brooks County, Texas, where hundreds of migrants have died over the past decade attempting to skirt a Border Patrol highway checkpoint by walking miles through the brush. White said the county has recovered 34 bodies and human remains this year on the vast cattle ranches where migrants often become lost and dehydrated in 100-degree heat and harsh terrain. never seen so many people coming White said.

just crazy right In southern Arizona, more migrants have been traveling north along treacherous routes typi- cally used by drug smug- glers and other hardened crossers, putting them in greater peril, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials say. The agency is on pace to make more than 10,000 rescues during fiscal 2021, twice the number recorded in 2019 and 2020, CBP data show. of our rescues are now pushing up to the mountain regions, which used to be exclu- sively narcotics said Michael Montgom- ery, the head of Air and Marine Opera- tions, at a recent border safety event to discour- age migrants from at- tempting the journey. seeing more mixed traffic, people traveling at night, stumbling over rocks, falling over Mont- gomery said.

is no soft place to fall in the CBP will have a heli- copter rescue team with a paramedic on standby in Arizona for the sum- mer, he said. Border officials ac- knowledge that the in- crease in single adult mi- grants is partly driven by higher numbers of repeat or crossers attempting the jour- ney. Since March 2020, authorities have relied upon Title 42 of the U.S. health code to quickly re- turn most adult migrants to Mexico. The Biden administra- tion has kept the Trump- era policy in place, describing Title 42 as an essential tool to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus in detention cells and border com- munities hit hard by the pandemic.

But the turn- back approach has essen- tially removed the threat of criminal penalties or jail time, and smugglers are capitalizing by send- ing migrants to try again and again. Those who success- fully evade capture along the border also face lower risk of arrest once they arrive at their U.S. destinations. Arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have dropped to the low- est levels on record in recent months under the Biden administration, the latest figures show.

Then there are the border crossers that agents are unable to interdict. In recent months, CBP officials have reported more than 1,000 inci- dents per day in which agents detect an illegal crossing without making an arrest. The expanded use of technology and sensors along the bor- der has made it easier for CBP to know when someone enters, but of- ficials say they have enough agents to manage the volume of people arriving in recent months. White, the deputy, said he sees fewer U.S. agents patrol- ling the ranch roads and dirt tracks through Brooks County.

Patrol been in the brush as much due to processing the he said, referring to the families and children who surrender to agents after crossing the Rio Grande to start the asy- lum-seeking process. That means agents be able to find as many migrants in dis- tress, White said. guys will be carrying extra IV bags this sum- mer for the ones we may he said. CBP does not main- tain a single, centralized tally of exposure deaths and human remains re- covered, because the ma- jority of forensic servic- es are handled by county sheriffs and coroners in border districts. The Pima County medical of- fice, which is responsible for most of southern Arizona, encountered 220 remains last year, the highest in a decade.

looks like it will be pretty significant as Greg Hess, the county medical examin- er, said in an interview. tend to have a bell curve over the hotter Dangerous crossings have also increased in California, where smug- glers are sending mi- grants through rugged mountains between the Imperial Valley and San Diego, authorities say. CBP officials have urged migrants to keep cellphone batteries charged and to try call- ing 911 if they become lost. The agency has placed rescue beacons and placards in Span- ish and Mandarin along crossing routes, with instructions and GPS co- ordinates for migrants in distress who need help. places a great bur- den on CBP to respond to remote, treacherous areas to rescue migrants placed in this perilous said Salvador Zamora, a retired Bor- der Patrol official and former spokesman for the agency.

have to launch massive search- and-rescue efforts, and when someone is in a de- teriorating state, racing against the clock to reach that location and provide lifesaving Juanita Molina, the director of the Border Action Network, a hu- man rights organization based in Arizona, said the economic toll of the pandemic on vulnerable populations has pushed people to attempt the dangerous journey de- spite the risks. seeing people arriving who are more depleted and more des- Molina said. ones who are cross- ing on foot are the poor- est of the The Trump adminis- tration added hundreds of miles of steel border barriers in the Arizona desert to deter crossings, but officials say the bar- riers have made little difference in terms of where they are encoun- tering bodies or human remains. Between 1990 and 2020, the remains of at least 3,356 migrants were recovered in southern Arizona, according to a report published in April by the University of Ari- Binational Migra- tion Institute Daniel Martinez, a sociologist who is one the lead authors, said the intensification of enforcement by the Bor- der Patrol in Arizona has the lethality of CBP strategies that re- direct migrants to more remote areas are inten- tionally seeking to deter crossings by increasing rate of death and suffering along the bor- Martinez said in an interview. CBP officials declined an interview request, but they highlight their ex- tensive rescue efforts to deflect criticism that U.S.

border infrastructure is designed to be deadly. Martinez noted that there has been a marked increase in rescues and recovery operations in the mountains north of the Lukeville, area, one of the border seg- ments where the Trump administration added long stretches of 30-foot- barriers. Smugglers wielding demolition tools and power saws have been cutting through at particularly high rates along that span, accord- ing to agents, requiring frequent repairs. Grim summer for migrant deaths feared U.S. Border Patrol agents process immigrant families after they crossed the Rio Grande into south Texas on April 30 in Roma, Texas.

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Pages Available:
2,389,054
Years Available:
1883-2024