Fiscal 2010 sets record for Az border deaths

Border BoletÃ*n: Fiscal 2010 sets record for Az border deaths

Brady McCombs Arizona Daily Star
Monday, October 4, 2010 2:19 pm

It's official: the recently-completed fiscal year 2010 set a record for the number of illegal border crossers recovered in Arizona's desert.

As part of my monthly work to keep our Border Death Database up-to-date, I just received the latest information from the Pima and Cochise County medical examiner's office. The totals show that in fiscal year 2010, there were 252 illegal border crossers found dead along Arizona's stretch of U.S.-Mexico border from New Mexico to Yuma County, the area covered by the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector.

That total breaks the record of 234 set in 2007.

Here are the number of bodies of illegal border crossers recovered in Arizona's desert from New Mexico to Yuma County, by fiscal year:

2002: 142

2003: 177

2004: 196

2005: 233

2006: 189

2007: 234

2008: 185

2009: 215

2010: 252

Source: Arizona Daily Star's Border Death Database, which compiles information from the Pima, Cochise and Yuma County medical examiners in an effort to present an accurate tally of the numbers of people who die crossing into the United States illegally through Southern Arizona. The Pima County Medical Examiner's Office handles bodies found in Santa Cruz and Pinal Counties as well.

Fiscal year runs Oct. 1 - Sept. 30.

As I wrote about in August, nearly 2,000 illegal border crossers have died trying to cross Arizona's stretch of international border since 2001.

----------
Note: The above totals do not include border deaths from the Yuma County Medical Examiner's Office. I ran the numbers without Yuma because that county is a different Border Patrol Sector. This way, you can compare the medical examiner data to the Border Patrol's.

If you include the border deaths from Yuma, 2005 remains the record year with 259. That year, Yuma handled the bodies of 26 illegal border crossers. Yuma hasn't had a border death in nearly two years.

Another note: The yearly totals on our Border Death Database are by calendar year.

http://azstarnet.com/news/blogs/border- ... 002e0.html