Immigrant deaths are down in Yuma sector

The number of illegal immigrants dying in the deserts of Yuma County have decreased because they are trickling through other sectors to cross the border, the Border Patrol says.

The increased manpower along the border, with the help of of the National Guard and the new 52-mile border fence, are prime reasons that illegal immigrants are being deterred from crossing through the sector, said Eric Anderson, border patrol agent at the Yuma Sector.

Four bodies were found in the Yuma sector between Oct. 1 and May 31, the first eight months of the current 2008 fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. That's a decrease from the six bodies during the same period of fiscal 2007, and an even greater drop from the 39 bodies found throughout fiscal 2006, according to Yuma sector statistics.

Apprehensions in the Yuma sector have also dropped 80 percent since the National Guard came in to the Yuma sector in 2006. Apprehensions do not necessarily depict the total number of people illegally crossing the border instead the numbers depict the amount of people that were actually caught.

A total of 6,877 apprehensions were made in the sector from Oct. 1 through May 31 of this fiscal year - a far cry from 2006 when 118,549 apprehensions occurred in the Yuma Sector.

But the low number of apprehensions doesn't necessarily mean that illegal crossings have stopped, according to the Mexican Consulate in Yuma. It may indicate that illegal immigrants are crossing through other sectors, which is why the number of deaths in the Yuma sector has significantly decreased, said Miguel Escobar-Valdez, Yuma's Mexican consul.

And that could mean that bodies are being found in other sectors, he said.

"Generally the low number of apprehensions may make you think that the flow of immigrants has halted, but no," Escobar-Valdez said in Spanish. "This may mean that immigrants, like water currents, hits a wall and looks for an exit and could either go eastward or westward."

Fencing in the Yuma sector begins at the U.S. Port of Entry at Andrade and starts again at County 21-1/2 street and goes south along the river to the International Boundary that extends about 48 miles east.

The year before the National Guard soldiers came to the Yuma sector there were about 570 agents. Now there are well over 800 agents, according to staff reports gathered from the Border Patrol.


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Stephanie Sanchez can be reached at ssanchez@yumasun.com or 539-6847.
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YUMA SECTOR BORDER PATROL STATISTICS
(The U.S. Border Patrol fiscal year is from October 1st to September 30th)

-Deaths
From Oct.1, 2007-May 31, 2008: 4

Oct. 1, 2006-May 31, 2007: 6, fiscal year total:11

Fiscal year 2006 Total: 39

-Apprehensions
From Oct.1, 2007-May 31, 2008: 6,877

From Oct. 1, 2006-May 31, 2007: 31,993, fiscal year total: 37,992

Fiscal year 2006 Total: 118,549