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Lupita Murillo Reports
Illegal border crossers say they'll continue to take their chances
May 25, 2005, 11:03 AM

While record-breaking heat sends most Arizonans scrambling for shade, illegal aliens continue to attempt to cross the border, and it's proving deadly.

Twelve people have died over the past 5 days in the sweltering heat of the desert.

Eyewitness News 4 crossed the border to talk to illegals waiting for coyotes to help them sneak into Arizona through the desert.

The immigration bus is dropping off illegal immigrants in Nogales Mexico.

These people spent the weekend crossing through the desert during record breaking temperatures.

Enrique Amparano is from Mazatlan. He says it was so hot you could see the ground boiling and the heat rising from the dirt.

Amparano says three members of the group he was with couldn't make it. They became ill and stayed behind. He's hoping they were rescued.

So why risk your life, knowing the dangers?

"Out of necessity." he answers.

He says they prefer to take their chances in the desert than to stay in Mexico and watch their family starve to death.

He intends to try and cross again and is tempted to jump on the train that's heading out of Nogales, Sonora.

Oscar Ortiz barely made it out alive. This was his first attempt and he says he was unaware of the dangers.

It's also his last. Ortiz left a pregnant wife behind and all he could think of as he was dying of thirst in the desert that his child would grow up without a father. He's heading back.

Danny Garcia was deported six months ago. While working in Phoenix, he was earning $10 an hour at a restaurant. Now he earns $10 a day selling popsicles.

He says, "You can get a better life in the USA. Here I don't so."

The fence separates two countries but it doesn't deter those who risk their lives to cross it for a better future.