David Simmonds

One of the major issues that gets lost in the immgration debate is the destruction of the family unit throughout rural Mexico. You go into many of the back road villages and the first thing you notice is that there are no, or very few, able-bodied men. You see women, kids, old men – but that’s it.

Noticeably missing is the media coverage of what happens to the “illegal border crossers” on the journey north, as they make their way across the desert areas of Northern Mexico and the southwest U.S. This is where many of them have traversed since operation Gatekeeper went into effect in 1994.

As the following report states, “By all accounts, Operation Gatekeeper is a failure. The undocumented immigrant population has expanded significantly at the same time that border enforcement resources have escalated. From 2000 to 2008, the unauthorized population grew from an estimated 8.4 million to 11.9 million. The long-term results have been to strengthen migrant reliance on smugglers, decrease return trips to home countries, and multiply migrant deaths”.

Also in the report:

“In May 2009, the Arizona Daily Star’s comparative analysis of bodies recovered for the Yuma and Tucson Sector per 100,000 apprehensions found that the risk of dying was 1.5 times higher in 2009 than in 2004 and 17 times greater than in 1998″.

With the failed U.S. economy now citing more than a 10% unemployment rate with no improvement in sight, and with Immigration Reform on the near horizon, more Mexicans will be staying home. It will be essential that they have the environment to thrive in their home towns, while preserving what has always been the core of Mexico life: the family.

Here is the full report, compiled by Maria Jiminez from Houston and sponsored by Mexico’s National Commission of Human Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial counties.

http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/immigrants/humanitariancrisisreport.pdf