Saturday, September 15, 2007
Death on the Border, Chapter 1001
I am not sure whether anyone cares but the N.Y. Times has another article today about the deaths along the U.S./Mexico border. I know I have said it many times but the thousands of deaths are a tragedy that should make us all think hard about the human impacts of border fences, more border enforcement, etc.
KJ
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2007/09/death-on-the-bo.html
Comments
'The goal was to drive migrant traffic away from cities like San Diego and El Paso and into the remote desert on the assumption it would act as a deterrent.'
Clearly it doesn't deter everyone. So how about some jobs magnet deterrence in the form of robust employer enforcement? I wonder why these articles and border death activists never mention that obvious solution?
Posted by: Jack | Sep 16, 2007 12:57:54 AM
This is typical Illegal Alien Times article, one that puts the sole onus for death on the border on U.S., when the real responsibility is with the illegal alien and his corrupt and incompetent government. Americans are taking notice of the unbalanced coverage of this problem and dismissively read their references to this subject as a source of amusement.
While the statistics for auto deaths shown below are for 1999, more than 100 Americans are killed in auto accidents every day of the year, putting death on the border, less than two per day, in perspective. These traffic deaths are Americans who are fathers, mothers, children, sisters and brothers of those who are left behind, yet the mainstream media has little interest in campaigning this problem as human interest stories. Let's put our sympathies where they belong, with our fellow citizens. Latin Americans are the problem of their own families in their respective countries. Unlike many of those who die in traffic accidents, illicit border crossers are well aware of the risks they take.
1999 traffic death statistics:Killed by Car Accidents
http://www.unitedjustice.com/death-statistics.html
Highway fatalities account for more than 94% of all transportation deaths. There were an estimated 6,289,000 car accidents in the US in 1999. There were about 3.4 million injuries and 41,611 people killed in auto accidents in 1999. The total number of people killed in highway crashes in 2001 was 42,116, compared to 41,945 in 2000. An average of 114 people die each day in car crashes in the U.S.
Posted by: Horace | Sep 16, 2007 6:52:07 AM
Where's the objective evidence that a guest worker programme, necessarily limited in numbers by the number of willing employers, will actually reduce deaths in the desert? Unless conditions in Mexico and other Latin American countries improve, their ever increasing populations will generate a corresponding number new people attempting to cross our borders. Those not accepted into a guest worker program will undoubtedly attempt to cross and risk their lives. Why should we believe that anything will change? The answer is, that even with a guest worker program, and employer enforcement, illegal aliens will continue to die in the dessert, perhaps in greater numbers than today. The immigration lawyers make a disingenuous argument in their use of illegal alien deaths as lever for their real agenda, open borders.
Posted by: Horace | Sep 16, 2007 7:23:17 AM
Question: I am unable to find a death certificate for my first wife who passed away over 35 yrs ago. We were separated and I believe she died in MN, but I am not sure. Is there any way to get a green card approved for my wife without the death certificate?
Posted by: Tony | Nov 1, 2008 5:13:57 PM
Now, think about it in more depth. If we increased border enforcement and, for instance, discredited all those like the NYT who oppose interior enforcement, then potential "migrants" wouldn't try to come here in the first place.
So, if we were able to enforce our laws, about the only people who'd try to cross would be smugglers and terrorists.
Instead, it's those who oppose immigration enforcement who are partly responsible for the deaths.
Posted by: TLB | Sep 15, 2007 1:23:25 PM