PHOENIX — The number of illegal immigrants dying while crossing America’s southern border fell for the second straight year, officials said Wednesday.
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The record for migrant deaths was set in 2005, when 494 were reported.
The U.S. Border Patrol attributed the lower numbers to tighter border enforcement that led to fewer illegal crossings and 2,500 new agents in the field who can spread out more to seek out immigrants crossing in remote and perilous terrain.
“We feel we have made significant progress this year,” said Border Patrol spokesman Lloyd Easterling, who believes the number is still too high.
More than half the deaths were reported in Arizona, the busiest illegal entry point along the nearly 2,000-mile southern border. For several years, immigrants have succumbed to triple-digit heat during the summers in the state’s deserts.
The primary cause of death for the immigrants was exposure to heat. Other causes include vehicle and train accidents, drownings, fatigue and banditry.
The deaths dropped in seven of the nine Border Patrol sectors along the southern border.
The increases came in the sectors in Tucson and Laredo, Texas.
The Rev. Robin Hoover, founder of the Tucson-based group Humane Borders, said people shouldn’t read too much into the decrease reported by the Border Patrol, because the numbers are likely higher.
The Border Patrol reports the number of bodies found along the border, but those numbers don’t include immigrants who have died but whose skeletal remains have yet to be discovered, Hoover said.
“This is not good news for the Border Patrol, and the Border Patrol shouldn’t treat this as good news,” Hoover said.
As the Border Patrol has increased border security in certain spots, it prompted smugglers to turn to remote and dangerous migration routes where enforcement is weaker, said Hoover, whose group has dozens of water stations in the Arizona desert to help illegal immigrants in distress.
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