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  1. #1
    Senior Member mapwife's Avatar
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    Migrant Bodies clog border Morgues

    http://www.azcentral.com/php-bin/clickt ... s0622.html

    Migrant bodies crowd border morgues
    Identifying desert's victims proves difficult; costs grow

    Susan Carroll
    Republic Tucson Bureau
    Jun. 22, 2006 12:00 AM


    TUCSON - The workers in the morgue stacked the bodies on tall metal shelving, until the cooler was full, and no one else would fit.

    Then, they rented a 55-foot trailer with an air-conditioner that hums in the triple-digit heat. It was supposed to be temporary, but that, too, grew crowded with dead immigrants.

    Along the deadliest stretch of the U.S.-Mexican border, coroners and consulates are struggling to keep up with a record volume of bodies that are pouring into morgues like the one in Tucson. Border officials have dealt with unclaimed bodies and burials for decades, but they also face financial, moral and political questions as the bodies pile up.

    Dr. Bruce Parks, the Pima County chief medical examiner, has more than 100 bodies of undocumented immigrants in the morgue, some new arrivals, others dating as far back as 2004. Since Jan. 1, he's received a record number - 83 - compared with this time last year, when he had 60. The start of the summer temperatures has been brutal, he said, with six dead in one June weekend, the worst so far this year.

    "The main thing now is just bracing ourselves for the new people coming in," Parks said. "We're already behind, and it's picking up again."

    Taxpayers pay for autopsies, storage and cremation of dead undocumented immigrants brought into the Tucson facility. Mexican authorities in the U.S. are helping officials identify the dead, but with so many bodies pouring into the morgue, it's been difficult to get a handle on the situation.


    Year after year, the undocumented-immigrant death toll in Arizona has climbed to record levels. In 2005, the U.S. Border Patrol recorded more than 500 deaths along the southern border with Mexico, with more than half of the bodies found in Arizona. Parks estimates that since 2000, the Pima County morgue has taken in at least 830 undocumented immigrants who died while crossing the border, at an estimated cost of more than $800,000 to local taxpayers.


    Overwhelmed
    Parks' office also performs autopsies for Santa Cruz and Yuma counties, although Cochise County does its own. With a normal capacity of about 120 bodies, he's simply overwhelmed, and trying to hire more staff.

    Anita Royal, the Pima County Public Fiduciary responsible for the burials and cremation of the indigent and undocumented, is also struggling. She debated for months about what to do with body parts, sometimes just a single femur or finger, in storage for years.

    Should she bury them in baby coffins, or cremate them and store the urns? In the end, she went with the urns. They take up less space, and they're less expensive.


    Mexico involved
    With so many dead, the Mexican consulates and medical examiners along the border have struggled to identify the dead.

    Since January, the Mexican consulate has identified just over half of the bodies of undocumented immigrants, 32 of 61 bodies, said Alejandro Ramos Cardoso, a spokesman for the Mexican consulate in Tucson. Last year, the Mexican government launched a database known as SIRLI, System for the Identification of Remains and Localization of Individuals, maintained by the Mexican government. The medical examiner's office, working closely with the Mexican consulate, carefully maps dental records, notes age estimates and any belongings. The information is put into the SIRLI database, searchable in Mexican government offices, so families can use the Internet to find people who vanish headed north to the United States.

    In cases when the body is still not identified, Parks' office saves a piece of bone to send to a researcher in Waco, Texas, who has created a DNA database for undocumented immigrants who die along the border. Family members from Mexico can send in their own DNA if investigators suspect a match is likely, leading to at least a dozen matches so far, Ramos said.

    "You give people a peace of mind in trying to find their loved ones and get them back home," Ramos said.


    Bury or cremate?
    Still, the bodies keep coming in, far faster than they can be processed.

    Parks is looking to buy a permanent storage container for them, estimating the cost to be in the "hundreds of thousands" of dollars.

    In the past, unidentified bodies were buried in the indigent cemetery just off a busy street in Tucson, in graves labeled with "John Doe" or "Jane Doe," and their autopsy number. But burials got to be too expensive, nearly $1,000 each, so the public fiduciary is switching to cremations.

    Royal is waiting for estimates on cremating the body parts. Parks said that soon, she would get the remains of bodies stored in the morgue the longest, so they can make room for more.
    Illegal aliens remain exempt from American laws, while they DEMAND American rights...

  2. #2
    Senior Member mapwife's Avatar
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    This story comes from my community.

    Taxpayers pay for autopsies, storage and cremation of dead undocumented immigrants brought into the Tucson facility. Mexican authorities in the U.S. are helping officials identify the dead, but with so many bodies pouring into the morgue, it's been difficult to get a handle on the situation.

    Why aren't they trying to collect from the families or the Mexican Govt. for these services? When we hear horror stories about Americans who die or are injured in Mexico, it costs the American families thousands of dollars to get their loved one home!
    Illegal aliens remain exempt from American laws, while they DEMAND American rights...

  3. #3
    traveler's Avatar
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    Incompetent President

    The Mexican government should be responsible for all autopsy, identification, and shipment costs as they encourage illegal immigration. How ironic....illegal aliens are stacked on top of each other by coyotes when they sneak across the border and now they are stacked on top of each other in morgues. I have absolutely no sympathy and feel no remorse as they knew the inherent risks of crossing the border. Leave their carcasses in the desert as food for our endangered buzzard and vulture species. Fewer thieves, gang members, drug dealers, murderers, rapists, child molesters, DUI'S and less drain on taxpayers.

  4. #4
    MW
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    Senior Member MW's Avatar
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    Not to sound cold (no pun intended), but why doesn't our government put the bodies in refrigerated trucks and transport them to Mexico for disposition? Once, lets say 30, bodies accumulate, send them to Mexico. Why should we tax payers pay the bills for Mexican nationals. Of course it's understood that we would be forced to properly take care of those from other countries, but Mexico is next door - I say ship the bodies home. Furthermore, it would seem to me that Mexico would want their deceased back so they can afford them the opportunity of being buried near family. Color me confused on this issue.

    "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" ** Edmund Burke**

    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts athttps://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  5. #5
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    Parks is looking to buy a permanent storage container for them, estimating the cost to be in the "hundreds of thousands" of dollars.
    In the past, unidentified bodies were buried in the indigent cemetery just off a busy street in Tucson, in graves labeled with "John Doe" or "Jane Doe," and their autopsy number. But burials got to be too expensive, nearly $1,000 each, so the public fiduciary is switching to cremations.
    Why don't the Mex Consulates buy the container and STORE THE BODIES IN THE CONSULATES? Why should American Tax $$$ take this burden too?

    Geez, we pay for the ALIVE and we PAY FOR THEM DEAD
    That's called "cradle to grave" and that's called socialism/communism.
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  6. #6
    Senior Member lsmith1338's Avatar
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    If they are identified not to be an american citizen the body should be returned to Mexico or whatever country they are from and that country should bear the expense of identifying family members and interment not the US. Why should the US bear these costs when these people should not even be here in the first place?
    Freedom isn't free... Don't forget the men who died and gave that right to all of us....
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  7. #7
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    We pay for these illegals from the cradle (anchor babies) to the grave

  8. #8
    Senior Member PintoBean's Avatar
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    Why not put them in a refrigerated transport trailer and truck them back to Mexico for identification and disposal?
    Keep the spirit of a child alive in your heart, and you can still spy the shadow of a unicorn when walking through the woods.

  9. #9
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    We can't even deport dead illegals? This is just as wrong as everything else. When a body is found send it back to its country of origin, in this case Mexico.

  10. #10
    Senior Member Reciprocity's Avatar
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    Ship them all back dead or alive but not at my Expense! Postage Due! and another thing, if the bodies are on the Mexican side of the border, Leave them there! It's not our problem!!!
    “In questions of power…let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” –Thomas Jefferson

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