Feds: Migrant toll at 186 for last 11 months
by David L. Teibel on Sep. 06, 2007, under Local, Nation/World, SpecialFigures released Wednesday afternoon by the U.S. Border Patrol show 186 suspected illegal immigrants have died in the Tucson sector this fiscal year.
The Tucson sector includes all of Arizona except for Yuma, La Paz and Mohave counties, Border Patrol Agent Sean King said.
The death toll covers the period from the beginning of the fiscal year, Oct. 1, to Aug. 31. The federal fiscal year ends Sept. 30.
The number found dead during the same period last year was 160, and 201 during the same period in 2005, said King, a Border Patrol spokesman.
The body count covers all causes of death, including exposure to heat and cold, train-related deaths, motor-vehicle-related deaths, death in confined spaces, drowning, found skeletal remains, homicide and undetermined causes, King said.
The Tucson Citizen has reported that as of Aug. 29 at least 158 suspected illegal immigrants had been found dead in southern Arizona’s deserts since Oct. 1, according to Border Patrol and Tucson Citizen records.
The last two bodies, which brings the total to at least 160, were found Sunday and Aug. 29, King said.
• On Sunday, an agent on patrol found the skeletal remains of a person roughly 10 miles south of Casa Grande near the Pima-Pinal county line.
A Mexican voter registration card found near the body was that of a 19-year-old man from Chiapas, Mexico. Identification has not been confirmed.
• On Aug. 29, agents detained a man in Sells who said his uncle had died about a half-mile south of the town. He told agents his uncle had become ill while trekking north, sat down to rest and died. Agents found a man’s body. The younger man told them his uncle was 49 years old and that they both were from Morelos, Mexico. The older man’s identity has not been confirmed.
