More than 400 people have died trying to cross the border illegally from Mexico in the last 11 months, surpassing previous records.
Of those people, 228 have died crossing through Arizona, outstripping previous annual records even before the US federal fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.
From Texas to California, 415 people have perished trying to enter the US from Mexico -- far higher than last year's total of 330 and surpassing the previous high mark of 383 set in 2000, said Mario Villarreal, a spokesman for US Customs and Border Protection in Washington.
Crackdowns in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego have funneled most migrant traffic along the Mexican border into Arizona over the past several years.
Record numbers of deaths are being recorded in both Border Patrol sectors that cover Arizona and in south Texas, Villarreal said.
In Arizona, nearly half the deaths have been heat-related, Border Patrol spokesmen said.
Some of the increase in numbers reflect a change in the way Border Patrol officials are counting the deceased. In late June, they began including some bodies or remains found by other law enforcement agencies but not previously counted. Even accounting for the change, however, Arizona recorded more deaths so far this year than in all of the last fiscal year, Border Patrol spokesman Luis Garza said.
Garza attributed the upswing in deaths to dramatic and "unprecedented heat" as well as another factor: an eastward shift by smugglers to a more mountainous and treacherous stretch of Arizona desert east of the Baboquivari Mountains and the Tohono O'odham Indian reservation.
"It's here and it's real, and hopefully people will be able to understand the need, that our border's broken," said the Reverend Robin Hoover, founder of Tucson-based Humane Borders, an organization that places water in desert areas used heavily by illegal immigrants.
"We've been pointing to the problems for so long along the border that our arms are tired," Hoover said.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
RSS