What is the cost of illegal immigration in human numbers?

The cost can be broken into two parts. First, what is the cost of human life in just trying to get into the country? Coming to America illegally is a dangerous and deadly way to immigrate. It often results in a hundreds of deaths each year.

It is a number that doesn’t have to even exist.

Exposure

The United States border with Mexico has fences and walls built to deter illegal immigrants from entering the country. Because of the barriers, those who insist on entering the country illegally find themselves traveling through very harsh desert environments. This ends up killing many of them.

In 2001, fourteen people died from the desert heat after they were abandoned by the coyote they paid to get them to America.

Survivors said the group, some of them said to be from the Mexican state of Veracruz, was smuggled into the United States on Saturday east of Yuma in the rugged terrain of the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. The smugglers left them there, promising to return with water and instructing them to walk for “a couple of hours” to a highway.

But they never came back. The highway was more than 50 miles from where they were abandoned.

At the time it was the largest one day death toll in 20 years.

Arizona coroners can attest that the desert is a deadly environment for illegal immigrants:

Arizona accounted for more than half of the deaths of illegal migrants who died in the last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, while trying to enter the United States.

Of the total 473 deaths nationally, 216 occurred within the Border Patrol’s Tucson sector, which covers all but the westernmost portion of the Arizona-Mexico border, including Pima County.

It isn’t always the heat either. Three people were found dead in the desert in January of 2007. They died from exposure to the desert night. A 22 year old woman from Nicaragua was wearing wet clothing when the temperature fell to 34°. The two others were found within 24 hours.

While the pro-illegal immigration groups blame the strategic placement of barriers for these deaths, no one forced these poor souls into the desert. In fact, rather than discourage them from trying, the Mexican government provided a comic book detailing how to survive the grueling hike across the border:

Called “The Guide for the Mexican Migrant,” the 32-page book published by Mexico’s Foreign Ministry uses simple language to offer information on safety, legal rights and living unobtrusively in America.

“This guide is intended to give you some practical advice that could be of use if you have made the difficult decision to seek new work opportunities outside your country,” the book says, according to the Arizona Republic.

This move was not well received in the United States and it has not lead to the end of deaths in the desert. In fact, death tolls have risen:

While arrests of illegal immigrants have fallen, the number of people dying in the desert and along its roads is rising dramatically.

The official toll will be tallied next week for the federal fiscal year that ends Sunday.

Unofficially, county medical examiners put the count through Aug. 31 at 216, a 29 percent increase over the same period a year before. That may be because manpower on the border increased and more skeletal remains were found that were missed in previous years.

Even Border Patrol numbers, usually lower than the number of deaths counted by medical examiners, show that from Oct. 1, 2006, to Aug. 31 there were 14.2 percent more illegal immigrant deaths in the Tucson sector than in the entire previous fiscal year.

It isn’t the fence that drives them into the desert. It is the corrupt Mexican government.

Drowning

Twenty-four bodies washed up on the shore in Oaxaca, Mexico. They were illegal immigrants from a boat that sank off the coast. A survivor said they ran into some bad weather after leaving Guatemala. It is believed they were heading for the United States.

On our border, illegal immigrants die while crossing the Rio Grande. One illegal drowned crossing back into Mexico when the Border Patrol agent trying to help him was hit in the head with a rock:

“The smuggler struck the agent with a large rock. The agent did suffer a large 3 inch contusion on the back of his head, and there is some swelling,” said Senior Border Patrol Agent Patrick Berry. Berry says the agent, fearing for his life, fired at the smuggler as he made his way back into Mexico. It is unknown if the smuggler was hit.

The strong currents then carried the migrant down the river – to his death.

Sometimes the deadly waters catch illegals by surprise. With the increased security on the border, more have taken to using storm tunnels to travel undetected. They are unaware of how deadly that decision can be until it is too late:

At 5:30 this morning, U.S. Border Patrol spotted a large group of people clinging to the side of the flooded Grand Tunnel in Nogales after a heavy rain storm. Border Patrol pulled 34 people out of the tunnel with the assistance of other local law enforcement agencies.

Members of the group said another four people had been carried north, down the wash, said Juan Pablo Guzman, city of Nogales spokesman.

“If they are there, they are not alive,” said Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada.

Thirty four people saved by the Border Patrol while the Mexican government passes out comic books. It is outrageous that we even listen to what any Mexican official has to say on the issue of immigration.

Accidents

Illegal immigrants are packed into vehicles for transport into America. They are treated worse than cattle and their escorts have no regard for their safety. They are more concerned with their own necks. Escaping the Border Patrol often results in horrific results for those relying on them for safe passage.

Officials said the images show the Dodge speeding along, then coming to the end of Skyline Drive and Cardiff Street in the Lomita area, and launching off, crashing through a fence and then flipping in the air. The car landed upside down, then burst into flames.

The sheriff’s department arrived on scene and began rescuing people from the car. A total of eight people were ejected from the car. Police said four of them suffered serious injuries. One woman, an 18-year-old, is listed in extremely critical condition. She was rescued from inside the car’s trunk, officials said.

The death toll is so high in these crashes because, as noted above, the passengers are packed into these vehicles like sardines. A crash in 2006 involved a Chevy Suburban with twenty-one passengers:

A sport-utility vehicle packed with suspected illegal immigrants was traveling at least 80 mph when it overturned, killing nine people and injuring 12, a sheriff’s official said Tuesday.

The seats in the Chevy Suburban were down so the passengers were likely stacked inside when the accident happened Monday, said Yuma County Sheriff’s Maj. Leon Wilmot.

The vehicle was carrying 21 people — all Mexican citizens — when the driver tried to circumvent a checkpoint on a highway more than 30 miles north of Yuma, according to authorities.

With Border Patrol agents in pursuit, the driver attempted to make a U-turn and the SUV rolled over, Border Patrol spokesman Lloyd Frers said.

And in San Antonio (Caution: Graphic video), fifteen people are ejected from a vehicle after it rolled over during a chase. The Excursion was doing over 100 miles per hour when it passed a patrol car. Three people were killed. There were seventeen people total in the SUV.

Coyotes transport people for one purpose: to make money. They feel no responsibility or compassion for those they transport. They feel only for themselves and will risk the lives of their passengers to get away. Often, this results in the carnage you see above.

Rape

Do you know what a rape tree is? Ever heard of it? As one blogger put it, “For any decent, law-abiding American, to see a rape tree is to gaze upon the face of the enemy of civilization.”

A rape tree is adorned with the undergarments of those who were violated by those paid to transport them. It’s limbs are “decorated” with the panties of the victims, the ground below it is scattered with bloodstains.

Dr. Carol Hand found a rape tree when she was with the Minutemen in April of 2005:

“After the coyotes get the women across the border, safely on U.S. soil, they gang rape them to show they have total control over them. They hang their panties in the trees as signs of the conquest. I couldn’t leave them there. As a woman, I had to take them down. . . If the women are young and pretty, they are kept in houses of prostitution where they have to have their families buy them out or work their way out. Of course, none will testify to this because the coyotes know where they are from and can seek revenge on their families in Mexico.”

Do you think the Mexican government is going to put out a comic book describing how to avoid rape trees and what to do if you find yourself under one? Not surprisingly, this is part of the illegal immigration problem that the pro-illegal immigration crowd never mentions. You certainly have not heard any liberal feminists in Congress decrying rape trees as a result of illegal immigration, and if you did, it would probably be followed by a pledge to loosen immigration controls

No, rape doesn’t register on the radar in terms of illegal immigration even though there are thousands of these trees scattered along the southern border, each with its own morbid collection of “trophies.” Another human cost of illegal immigration.

Conclusion

It is irresponsible for the Mexican government to advise its people to enter the country in such a manner, yet the blame usually falls on the United States’. The United States welcomes immigrants with open arms, but we do expect them to come in legally. Ours is a rich history of immigration, but the human cost of illegal immigration is too high for us to do anything less than secure the borders in order to minimize it.

There must be firm control of the border in order to stop the carnage you have read about. Once the borders are secure, then we can move to solving the remaining problems. Leaving the border open like it is is costing too many human lives. And that is from just trying to get into the country. Once on the other side, the tragedy continues.

This is part 2 of a 5 part series on Illegal Immigration
Part 1: Illegal Immigration and National Security – It Is Worse Than You Know
Part 2: The Human Cost – Part 1: Coming to America
Part 3: The Human Cost – Part 2: Out of the Shadows, Into the Morgue
Part 4: The Human Cost – Part 3: Importing Pedophelia
Part 5: Secure The Border. Then What?