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Accuracy of migrant death list challenged

The Border Patrol fails to count bodies found by other law enforcement agencies, border activists say.

CLAUDINE LoMONACO
Tucson Citizen

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The Border Patrol says it does everything it can to accurately count the number of migrants dying in the desert.

But three bodies sitting in the county morgue haven't yet made it onto the Border Patrol's list. Those bodies push the number of illegal immigrants who died in the recent heat wave up to 17. The Border Patrol has counted only 14.

The three not on the tally were found by local law enforcement agencies, not Border Patrol agents. One was a middle-age Mexican woman who died of heat exhaustion. An off-duty Tucson police officer found her on a freeway exit southeast of Tucson Sunday morning. Pima County sheriff's deputies found the second body in the desert west of Tucson Tuesday morning. Tohono O'odham police officers found the third body under a bridge later that evening.

Accurately counting the number of migrant deaths is extremely important because "these are human lives," said Gloria Chavez, who heads the Border Patrol's National Border Safety Initiative. The initiative was started in 1998 to track and prevent the mounting number of migrant deaths.

But an accurate count also "allows us to see the high risk areas where the deaths are occurring, so we can prevent those deaths," Chavez said.

The Border Patrol tries to keep track of all migrant deaths found by other law enforcement agencies by checking in with local coroners, she said.

But medical examiners' offices from Pima and Cochise Counties report little such contact.

"We rarely, rarely hear from Border Patrol," said Janice Field, manager for the Cochise County Medical Examiner's Office.

"I don't know that it's a concern of theirs," said Dr. Bruce Parks, Pima County's chief medical examiner. Parks said the Border Patrol has called him once in the last year to ask about deaths it might have missed.

Last year, medical examiners in southern Arizona counted 221 migrant deaths. The Border Patrol counted 172.

Local and state newspapers have pointed out the discrepancy, but the Border Patrol has apparently not changed its counting method.

This fiscal year, which started Oct. 1, the Border Patrol's Tucson sector has counted 59 deaths. Medical examiners from the same area have counted more than 80. The Border Patrol count includes only those bodies that were found by its agents.

Claudia Smith, a lawyer with the California Rural Legal Assistance League, has been calling for the Border Patrol to change its counting method for years.

"I can no longer give them the benefit of the doubt," Smith said, "If a reporter can keep tabs of all the reports from the coroner, why can't an agency that is awash in money?"

Pima County's medical examiner makes a tally of migrant deaths available at the end of each month. A handful of journalists and humanitarian organizations stop by to pick up the list. The Border Patrol hasn't been
among the takers.

Like many immigrant rights activists, Smith believes the Border Patrol is purposefully minimizing the deaths to hide the true human impact of what she calls a failed border policy.

The Border Patrol often uses its statistics as evidence that its policies are reducing deaths, despite overall numbers that have increased every year since migrant traffic shifted to Arizona in the late '90s. Last year, deaths by heat exposure went down in the west desert area between Nogales and Yuma. Deaths by vehicle accident went up in the same area, but the Border Patrol pointed to the decrease in heat-related deaths as a sign that the Arizona Border Control Initiative, which targeted the area, was having a positive impact.

Smith questions what kind of impact the agency can have, given its counting methods.

"How can you possibly develop an effective search and rescue strategy if you don't have an accurate view of the deaths?" she asked.

The Border Patrol's Chavez said the agency does everything in its power to count all deaths.

A local Tucson sector spokeswoman acknowledged that sometimes not all the deaths make it on the list.

"It is our intention to try and count everyone," said Border Patrol spokeswoman Andrea Zortman. "There are times when we get too busy. We're not trying to minimize anything."

For more border coverage, go to www.tucsoncitizen.com/border.