“Ten years ago there were almost no deaths on the southern Arizona border. What they’ve done is created this gantlet of death. It’s Darwinian — only the strongest survive.”
REV. JOHN FIFE, a Presbyterian minister who works on illegal immigration issues in Arizona.

The area of southern Arizona has been called the Killing Fields of the U.S. During the summer months, there are numerous reports of deaths: People who have no water or who are within walking distance of fresh water and have collapsed. Men, women and children are found dehydrated and having suffered from heat stroke in the vast deserts.

There are stories of “wranglers” who will take a person’s hard earned money to get them into the U.S. and who will then abandon that person in the middle of the desert with no means to survive the searing heat. Worse, are the loads of people loaded into unconditioned box vans (the big trucks like moving vans). The heat, the panic, the lack of water and air have killed many people.

I know, I know…more news about death. I think this is important, though, because no one talks about the atrocities that happen within our own borders. This is an awful way to live and die. There is nothing but suffering in this kind of passing.