The families of 14 illegal Mexican immigrants who died of dehydration while crossing the hot Arizona desert have filed a $42 million lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior, claiming it
failed to help them survive.
The lawsuit, filed April 30 in U.S. District Court in Tucson, claims federal border policy forced the immigrants to enter the country through the treacherous area southwest of Tucson known to have little water. Border Patrol agents found the immigrants on May 23, 2001 in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge.
The 14 are among hundreds of undocumented immigrants that have succumbed to the 100-degree temperatures in the desert region since October 2001, according to Border Patrol
statistics.
The lawsuit also alleges the department could have prevented the deaths if it hadn’t blocked the humanitarian-aid measures of a group called Humane Borders. Two months prior, the human rights organization was refused permission to place a water station “in the exact area” where the
crossers died, according to the suit.
Environmental concern reportedly trumped that over the Mexicans.
Robin Hoover, pastor of First Christian Church and president of Humane Borders, told the Associated Press and Arizona Star the application for the water station was denied over concerns for the endangered Sonoran pronghorn antelope.
“They’ve got all kinds of critters. They also seem to have some human beings running around out there,” James Metcalf, one of three attorneys who filed the lawsuit, told the Arizona Star. “These
folks are still human beings who die at alarming frequencies, and they’re aware of that,” he said.
The day after the 14 bodies were recovered, according to the lawsuit, wildlife officials placed seven Humane Borders flags marking water stations migrants could use. Metcalf maintains this
shows culpability on the part of the Interior.
“By allowing water stations in areas where it formerly prohibited them and by setting up emergency call boxes to save the lives of illegal entrants in the desert, the government has acknowledged people need help to make the journey, he told the Arizona Star. “The government doesn’t assume responsibility unless they in fact have one.”
Worse than the lack of compassion, asserts Hoover, is the escalating violence at the border, including the presence of citizen militias taking border security into their own hands.
“We’re very concerned that the Border Patrol’s attitude is becoming more militarized,” Hoover told the Tucson Citizen. “We think the Border Patrol’s job is truly a law enforcement style of public
service and not military.”
WorldNetDaily has reported the Mexican border increasingly resembles a war zone as drug and illegal-migrant smugglers pull out all the stops to defy U.S. agents. In 2000, the Juarez cartel, one of Mexico’s biggest drug gangs, placed a bounty of $200,000 on U.S. lawmen.
Following the announcement, Border Patrol officers reported instances of “armed incursions” into U.S. territory by heavily armed Mexican army units. In March 2000, two Mexican army Humvees carrying about 16 soldiers, armed with automatic assault rifles, pistols and a submachine gun drove across the international boundary near Santa Teresa, New Mexico and shot at Border Patrol agents.
Then in March 2002, a Border Patrol officer encountered four heavily armed Mexican army soldiers on the U.S. side of the border near San Diego. The soldiers, armed with three submachine guns and one M-16 rifle, crossed the border near Tecate, Mexico, while on a counter-drug mission.
The shooting death of a park ranger in Arizona’s Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument last August prompted calls for more security on the U.S. border. The 28-year-old ranger was killed as he and Border Patrol agents closed in on two gunmen suspected of having ties to Mexican drug lords.
“We have to put the military down here; we have to help these people,” Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., the head of the House Immigration Reform Caucus, declared at the time.
Then there are security concerns beyond smugglers.
WorldNetDaily reported last month a southern Texas sheriff put out a public warning that unidentified armed men dressed in military fatigues, carrying “professional backpacks” and walking together in a military cadence have been spotted on numerous occasions in his county near the border with Mexico.
Despite the risks, The Tucson Citizen reports some 3,000 migrants make it across the border successfully every day.
The lawsuit seeks about $3 million for each of the 14 who failed.
Wes Bramhall, president of Arizonans for Immigration Control, condemned the lawsuit.
“It’s ridiculous,” he told the Arizona Star. “These people knew what they were doing. They knew they were breaking the law.”
Related stories:
Rash of illegals crashing through U.S. port-of-entry
Border Patrol encounters Mexican soldiers
Border accident or bounty hunting?
Mexicans shoot at Border Patrol
Border killing points up security lack
U.S. demands probe of border ‘act of war’
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