http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/84111.php

$42M suit in 11 entrant deaths dismissed
By Michael Marizco
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

A federal judge has dismissed a $42 million lawsuit filed by the families of 11 of the 14 illegal entrants who died four years ago while trying to cross the desert through the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge.

The bodies were found May 23, 2001, in the desert southeast of Yuma, some naked, others covered in vomit. Some victims had tried to bury themselves in the sand to escape the sun.

Their smuggler made it 20 more miles before collapsing. He and 11 others survived.

The lawsuit, filed in April 2003, sought to place the blame for the deaths squarely on the United States for not allowing migrant aid water stations in wildlife refuge in 2001.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge John M. Roll dismissed the lawsuit, saying the federal court did not have the responsibility to hear the civil suit.

"First, no duty exists based on the presence of decedents on Cabeza Prieta," Roll wrote in his decision. "A landowner has no duty to aid trespassers. …"

The three attorneys who filed the lawsuit argued that the Department of the Interior could have prevented the deaths if it had allowed Tucson-based Humane Borders to place water stations in the refuge.

The lawsuit claimed Operation Gatekeeper, the shutting down of the urban California border in San Diego, forced the migrants into the most treacherous part of the Arizona desert.

"I'm disappointed, but I'm not surprised," said one of the attorneys, James Metcalf, after the ruling. "The government generally has laws and immunities in place that make it difficult to sue."

U.S. Attorney Dan Knauss, who defended the United States in the suit, said the families had the right to appeal.

It's still the single greatest incident of migrant deaths in Arizona, said Yuma Sector spokesman Joe Brigman, who was a supervisor for the Yuma Sector when the bodies were found.

He headed the group that found the smuggler, Jesus Lopez Ramos, now serving a 16-year sentence in federal prison.

"Everyone else in the group was either dead or near death," Brigman said.

That the lawsuit was dismissed came as no surprise to Luis Alberto Urrea, author of "The Devil's Highway," the narrative account of the Yuma 14.

"It was a piece of political theater," Urrea said. "It was directed more toward change than any satisfaction for the families."

Four years later, some changes have been implemented.

The Border Patrol began placing rescue beacons in the desert to give illegal entrants who want to give up a fighting chance at survival.

In March 2004, Mexico confronted its own smugglers, arresting 42 current and former immigration officials from leads developed as a result of the Yuma death investigations.

Some in the migrant aid community remain frustrated however, saying there simply hasn't been enough done to stop the migrant deaths in the desert.

"The decision-making process remains flawed. That was the basis of the suit. Our point is that a lot more still needs to be done," said the Rev. Robin Hoover, of Tucson's Humane Borders.