The sweat has been pouring off millions of Americans in a record-breaking heat wave in the southwestern US state of Arizona last week.
News reports have focused on the sweltering city of Phoenix and its environs where 18 people -- mostly homeless -- had died before thunderstorms brought temporary relief from the deadly heat on Thursday.
But the death toll has been far worse close by in the parched Sonora desert areas that are among the busiest routes for Mexican nationals trying to cross illegally into the US.
According to official figures from the US Customs and Border Patrol, 47 migrants have died trying to cross the desert since the start of July. At least 26 of the fatalities have been positively attributed to heat-related causes. Coroners are still working on determining the causes of the other deaths, Senior Patrol Agent Andrea Zortman said.
Body count
The death count is chilling compared to the same period last year when in the entire month of July last year there were 26 deaths among Mexican migrants -- 14 of them heat-related, said Salvador Zamora, a spokesman for the US Customs and Border Patrol.
In the current fiscal year the number of deaths is 330, almost the same figure recorded for the whole of last year, he said.
No single factor is causing the increased death toll, but the year's harsh weather conditions are certainly a major element. The increase in border security is another, since it forces migrants to take longer routes through dangerous areas that can leave them stranded in the desert for days on end.
Many are also forces to rely on unscrupulous smugglers called "coyotes" to take them across. Often they are told to expect a five-hour crossing that turns out taking five days.
Zamora says US agencies are aware of the problem and are doing their best to prevent loss of life. They have established a string of rescue beacons and aid stations that would-be migrants can use. The only problem is that they will get deported if they use them.
The agency is also funding a slew of advertising throughout Mexico, warning would-be migrants of the adverse conditions. While cynics may accuse the US agency of capitalizing on the migrant deaths to decrease the number of illegal immigrants Zamora insisted that the purpose of the ads is purely humanitarian.
"It is a tragedy that these people are dying, and we have to let them know what is happening," he said. "We are running these ads on radio, television and on posters, not only in the border areas but in the more distant regions where the migrants are living. We are warning them that there will be severe weather conditions through the next six months."
Some private citizens are trying to help too. A group of pilots this week began parachuting water bottles into crossing areas, an effort Zamora described as ineffective.
Scantily reported
The increased death toll is only scantily reported in the US press, which often focuses on the alleged harm that the immigrants cause US society and the US economy when it does report on the immigration problem.
Human rights activists say the death toll is probably 30 percent higher than the official figures. They say the tragedy will continue as long as the US fails to tackle the root cause of migration: trade policies that are driving millions of peasants from their land and into a desperate bid to cross the border in order to feed their families.
Cat Rodriguez, a coordinator for the immigrant rights group "Indigineous Alliance Without Borders" says that the increased militarization of other areas of the border with huge fences and other obstacles has funnelled would-be migrants precisely to the areas that are most dangerous.
The increased enforcement doesn't even appear to be effective in decreasing the flow of undocumented immigrants. A study in March by the Pew Hispanic Center found the number of undocumented migrants from Mexico entering the country increased to the current 485,000 from 260,000 a year in the early 1990s.
"Instead of thwarting illegal border crossings, the southwestern border has simply become an expensive obstacle course that hundreds of thousands of migrants successfully overcome each year," wrote David Gonzales, who covers the border region for the Arizona Republic newspaper.
"The government thinks that more agents and more militarization and more border enforcement will start to work. But it has never worked and it never will," Rodriguez said.
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