These are some random bits of information from the borderlands of Southern Arizona, culled from meetings and conversations with border activists over the last week.
According to Derechos Humanos and No More Deaths, there have been 105 known border crossing deaths in the Tucson border patrol sector since October 1, including 6 discovered just last week.
The new version of the No More Deaths web site is about to be launched. It will feature an easier to update content management system and a blog with frequent updates from the desert by volunteers and independent media people. The site will hopefully develop over the summer to a portal and destination for people wanting to research immigration-related deaths and abuses in the region and the world.
No More Deaths is setting up a presence in Nogales, Agua Prieta, and Benjamin Hill. This is mainly to provide medical aid and advice to those migrants who have been deported and are intending to try to cross again. Already, volunteers report that on the first day in Nogales they witnessed 2 busloads, about 100 people, of deportees being dropped off on the Mexican side. Almost everyone on board was dehydrated to some degree. Meanwhile in Benjamin Hill, a town 100 miles south of the border with a major freight train yard and hence a primary point for migrants to pass through, people are reporting lots of migrants heading south who have given up in their efforts to cross. this is a first.