Audio By Carbonatix
Not all of the water from all of the jugs placed in the desert by activists from groups like No More Deaths can wipe clean the blood of migrants from President Barack Obama’s hands.
What other conclusion can be drawn from the news from Tucson advocacy group Derechos Humanos that the number of remains recovered from the Arizona desert for the current fiscal year has already reached 85? That’s a 60 percent increase over this time last year.
According to Derechos Humanos,
“The count to date
includes fifty-four (54) males, ten (10) females, and twenty-one (21)
individuals of unknown gender. The identities of approximately sixty-five (65)
of the recovered individuals remain unknown, which is approximately 76% of the
total recovered thus far this fiscal year.
“This number is a 60.3% increase from
last year, when the total of recovered remains as of February 28, 2009 was
fifty-three (53). Approximately twenty-five (25), or 28.3% of the remains were
skeletal, and sixty-five (65), or 76.4% remain unidentified.”
Derechos
Humanos Coordinator Kat Rodriguez blames cold winter weather, as well
as the phenomenon known as the “funnel effect,” for the deadly harvest.
The “funnel effect” is a phrase used by researchers to describe
the result of a U.S. border policy that seals off urban areas, forcing
migration into increasingly remote and rugged terrain. Which in turn
causes a higher number of migrant deaths.
This deadly border
policy has been maintained by several administrations, both Democrat
and Republican. And the Obama Administration, via Homeland Security
Secretary Janet Napolitano, persists in it.
The U.S. Border Patrol
has referred to its border strategy as “prevention through deterrence.”
Critics call it “deterrence through death.”
The increase in
skeletal remains noted above and in remains where the gender cannot be
determined due to a lack of corporeal matter, indicates that migrants
are being forced into, “more isolated areas, making rescue and
detection less likely and the likelihood of death more certain,”
according to Derechos Humanos.
A
demilitarization of the border and an immigration reform package that
allows for a common-sense approach to work visas and circular migration
from Mexico would likely bring the death toll back down to its pre-90’s
levels. But there’s no indication that President Obama intends any such
thing,
And so the President’s hands remain gory with guilt, and
the bodies continue to stack up in southern Arizona like freshly cut
mesquite. If you were looking for “change,” there’s none here.
