Immigrant Fatalities on the Mexican-American Border

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The deaths in the border between Mexico and the United states have been increasing rapidly in the past decade. The fatalities have doubled since 1998 due to the increase of borders patrol and border militarization. The result is the redistribution of the migratory flow to more dangerous and remote areas such as southern Arizona. Even though the number of immigrants who try to cross the border has decreased, the number of fatalities continues to increase. Immigrants will not stop coming unless the situation in their countries changes and with a more protected border, they will look for more remote areas to try to cross. We are experiencing the largest numbers of fatalities in the border between Mexico and the United States. The increase of border patrol as well as border militarization is leading migrants to very dangerous and remote areas to cross the border. Unless the governments from both countries do something to solve this issue, people will continue to die in this border.

The increase of border security in general the flow of immigration was redirected to the most remote areas of Arizona. Here in southern Arizona is where the “Devil’s Highway” is found. The devil’s highway is a remote desert with an extensive history of deaths. Many immigrants walk for days in the dessert with little water and no food making it a very dangerous place to loose their lives. In his book: “The Devil’s Highway: A True Story”, Luis Alberto Urrea provides us with a background and the events happening such desert. Urrea mentions that: “The first white known man to die in the desert heat here did it on January 18, 1541” (Urrea 5). This shows that the deaths of immigrants here is nothing new. “Most assuredly, others had died before. As long as...

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Urrea, Luis Alberto. The Devil's Highway: A True Story. New York: Little, Brown, 2004. Print.

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