Illegal immigrant deaths highest since 2005

A pleasant horseback ride through the desert Saturday morning turned grisly for a Green Valley man when he stumbled across the skeletal remains of a suspected illegal immigrant — the third body he’s found in the past two years.

The discovery south of Canoa Ranch was among the 207 bodies found in the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector since Oct. 1, 2008, the start of the fiscal year, according to officials.

That compares to 171 bodies in fiscal year 2008; 202 in 2007; 169 in 2006; and 216 in 2005 — close to 1,000 documented migrant deaths in the past five years in the sector, which covers most of the Arizona border with Mexico.

“It’s an eerie feeling,” said the Montana Vista resident, who didn’t want to be identified. The remains, which he said had been scattered by coyotes, were found about two miles south of Green Valley and a mile west of Interstate 19 in an undeveloped area popular with hikers and horse riders. It’s also popular with migrants traveling north from Arivaca Road, a popular route for human and drug smuggling.

“I know there’s an awful lot of them out there, and a lot that don’t ever get found,” he said. “I could have walked right past this one had I not seen a large bone that piqued my interest.”

DEATH ON THE RANCH

The bodies of suspected illegal immigrants are frequently found on the 50,000-acre King Anvil Ranch northwest of Green Valley in the Altar Valley. Four were discovered in August and September, bringing the total to six since January, said Pat King, who owns the historic ranch along with her husband, John.

“The Border Patrol found this latest one, but the other three were found by our cowboys as they gathered cattle and rode,” she said.

“We’re about three days north of the border and, unfortunately, the coyotes (human smugglers), if you can’t keep up with them, they just leave you behind. Some people can make it to a road, but some are on trails out in the desert. People don’t know where they are. They get lost out there and they die.”

The ranch has been in the King family since John’s grandfather settled in the valley in the 1880s. A cluster of historical buildings serves as ranch headquarters, where the Kings and other family members reside along with a worker who is head of ranch security. They also built a hut on property for members of the Minutemen, who patrol the ranch several times per month in search of illegal immigrants. They contact the Border Patrol when they find them.

“There are signs that people are coming through every day,” Pat said. “It’s been pretty awful — we do not dare leave the property alone.”

Several times, migrants have come up to the house and “ordered us to take them up to Phoenix,” she said.

After a nerve-wracking incident involving a migrant a few years ago, phones were installed in all the buildings on the property — in case someone finds themselves alone while strangers roam the property, she said.

“My kids, when they were growing up, they would run and play and I wouldn’t see them for hours. I can’t do that now with my grandchildren,” she said.

But King said most of the people they come across are not violent, and are just looking for help.

“About a month ago, two ladies came in and they were gripping each other’s hands so tightly in a ‘nothing will happen to you that won’t happen to me’ type of way,” Pat said. “It was awful to see.”

WHY SO MANY DEAD?

The body count is about 20 percent higher this year than in fiscal year 2008, though everybody agrees fewer illegal immigrants are coming over because of the poor U.S. economy.

The Border Patrol says an increase in agents has meant that there is more patrolling in previously unmanned, rural areas, and that increases the odds of coming across bodies.

Border Patrol spokesman Mario Escalante noted other factors that could affect the count, including:

Many of the remains are skeletal, and it’s difficult to tell how long ago the person died. A body is tallied in the year it is discovered.

The death could also be a result of bandit violence, not the desert heat; or it might not be that of a migrant.

But a local member of the activist group Humane Borders said the extra agents, many of whom are concentrated in urban centers such as Nogales, push migrants farther into the desert and away from an “infrastructure of help.”

“Desperate people, economically, will do anything to feed their families,” said the Rev. Randy Mayer, minister at Good Shepherd United Church of Christ in Sahuarita.

Mayer helps lead the Green Valley Samaritans, which manages several water tanks in the desert and goes into the desert each week to search for injured or distressed illegal immigrants.

Mayer says the majority of illegal immigrants they find want to return home, and the Samaritans call the Border Patrol in those cases.

“They’re just so broken and empty and filled with fear,” he said.

Minutemen groups, however, argue that groups that provide water to immigrants do more harm than good by giving false hope, and that it encourages them to cross into the desert.

Escalante said that many smugglers use the water stations as a “selling point” to migrants, helping to convince them that they’ll have enough water on their journey north.

Mayer says similar criticism can be directed toward the Minutemen, who go out searching for immigrants and notify agents and emergency crews when they find them. This shows migrant groups that there are people out in the desert willing to help them if they decide to turn themselves in to the Border Patrol or simply can’t go on.

DO GROUPS HELP?

The Border Patrol understands the concern of groups such as the Samaritans and the Minutemen, but they don’t encourage them.

“Our whole stance is that we have the 1-800 numbers for civilians, so if they see something they can report it,” said Agent Mark Qualia, a Border Patrol spokesman with the Department of Homeland Security in Washington, D.C. “We don’t encourage people to go out and pursue law enforcement activities because it’s inherently dangerous.”

Escalante said, “We don’t work hand-in-hand with them (the Minutemen or the Samaritans), but we appreciate their concern.”

“No doubt we understand their desire to help these groups in the desert.”

But Mayer said putting more agents and technology in the field only leads to more deaths.

“If we (Samaritans) weren’t out there, there would be even more deaths,” he said.

Mayer says the best answer would be to develop a program that allows migrants to work legally in the United States.

“It’s gotten crazy, the millions of dollars we spend on border security, and nothing is really changing,” he said.

“In so many ways the human face of this is lost. Human beings are dying, one of the worst possible ways of dying — from dehydration — and without their loved ones by their sides.”

“It’s just unacceptable to have over 200 people dying in our back yard.”

jrichardson@gvnews.com | 547-9726