In the past decade, more than 300 illegal migrants have died each year while attempting to cross the 2,000-mile border - most from exposure or drowning.
On Thursday, the one-year anniversary of the discovery of 14 illegal immigrants who died of exposure in the vast, barren desert in southwestern Arizona, Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner James Ziglar announced that six 30-foot-tall safety beacons have been placed in the area.
The solar-powered beacons are covered in mirrors and topped with fist-sized flashing strobe lights. The mirrors and lights, which blink every 10 seconds, are meant to help guide lost illegal immigrants to the beacons and can be seen from four miles away during the day and five miles at night.
The towers have instructions in Spanish and English, as well as simple pictures showing how to push an alarm button that will send a radio signal to the U.S. Border Patrol. Dispatchers in Yuma will receive the signal instantly and send out agents who will be able to reach the beacon within an hour.
The beacons are located in places around Yuma, about 160 miles southwest of Phoenix, where agents have rescued illegal immigrants before.
The Mexican government is also setting up similar solar-powered rescue towers. Those 100-foot-high beacons will be visible from up to six miles away.
So far, no illegal immigrants have used the Arizona beacons, Yuma border agent Michael McGlasson said.
``But the most dangerous time of the year hasn't come yet,'' said McGlasson, adding that summer temperatures in the area can approach 120 degrees. ``Hopefully we'll get no alerts.''
Some activists, however, remain skeptical the measures will do anything to stop the illegal immigrant death toll from rising.
Despite the new safety measures, crossing the border this summer will remain a terrifying ordeal, said Isabel Garcia, a spokeswoman for Coalicion de Derechos Humanos, an immigrant rights group in Tucson.
``We don't believe that the measures to beef up and militarize the border will do anything to protect them,'' said Garcia, adding that more border agents means more illegal immigrants will try to cross at dangerous, remote spots.
``We will see more deaths and more suffering along the border this summer,'' she said.
Besides the beacons, immigration officials will also be giving border agents in El Centro and Tucson non-lethal pepperball guns, Ziglar said. The weapons allow agents to avoid killing or seriously injuring illegal immigrants who are threatening them.
Border agents in San Diego already have access to the guns, which use compressed air to fire plastic, chemical-filled pellets that irritate the eyes, nose and mouth.
In the Imperial Valley near El Centro, the safety campaign will provide a horse patrol and two hovercraft to guard the All-American Canal, an agricultural channel that divides the United States and Mexico.
Illegal immigrants often drown while crossing the network of fast-flowing irrigation canals that crisscross the area.
The INS will also set up an intelligence gathering cell in El Centro that will work with Mexican officials to arrest and prosecute immigrant smugglers operating in the area, Ziglar said.
Tucson, Yuma and El Centro will receive five extra helicopters and eight pilots starting in June. More aircraft will be added in July, said Ziglar.
New search and rescue teams have also been set up along the border, including 10 agents added in El Centro.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/5/202145