Death Rate Climbs Despite Economic Decline And Drop In Migration And Apprehensions
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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SAN DIEGO – U.S., Mexican and international officials must recognize the deaths of migrants occurring during unauthorized crossings of the U.S.-Mexican border as an international humanitarian crisis and respond with reforms that make human life a priority, according to a new report released today by the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties and Mexico's National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH). The report, Humanitarian Crisis: Migrant Deaths at the U.S.-Mexico Border, finds that border deaths have increased despite fewer unauthorized crossings due to the economic downturn.
The release of the report marks the 15th anniversary of the border enforcement policy Operation Gatekeeper that concentrated border agents and added walls and fencing along populated areas, intentionally forcing migrants to hostile environments and natural barriers that increase the incidence of injury and death.
"The current policies in place on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border have created a humanitarian crisis that has led to the deaths of more than 5,000 people," said Kevin Keenan, Executive Director of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties. "Because of deadly practices and policies like Operation Gatekeeper, the death toll continues to rise unabated despite the decrease in unauthorized crossings due to economic factors."
The report analyzes deadly border enforcement policies and practices and their impact on individuals, families and communities and offers concrete recommendations to significantly decrease and possibly end the humanitarian crisis at the border.
Some of the report's major findings include:
Since Operation Gatekeeper went into effect in 1994, an estimated 5,600 migrants have died while attempting unauthorized border crossings. In response to government failures to prevent migrant deaths, many organizations have set up water stations, desert medical camps, humanitarian-aid patrols and other rescue and recovery operations in an attempt to save lives along the U.S.-Mexican border area. As the report details, these activities have been increasingly met with government opposition and punishment.
"By any measure, Operation Gatekeeper is a failure. It didn't reduce unauthorized border crossings, the economy did. It has, however, cost thousands of people their lives," said Andrea Guerrero, Field and Policy Director of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties. "Instead of policies that foster fatalities, we need sensible, humane immigration and border policies that prioritize human life over death."
The report recommends actions that the U.S. and Mexican governments should take to protect and advance the human right to life of migrants, including:
Javier Garcia, whose testimony about his brother who died while crossing the border is featured in the report, said, "I hope that my brother's case is taken as an example of what should not happen, that things change."
The report can be found online at: www.aclu.org/immigrants/gen/41186pub20091001.html
More information about the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties can be found at: www.aclusandiego.org/
More information about the ACLU's work on immigrants' rights can be found at: www.aclu.org/immigrants/index.html