Friday, June 7, 1996

Drought Takes Toll on Illegal Immigrants

By PAULINE ARRILLAGA
Associated Press

SARITA - The toll of the Texas drought is rising. Four illegal immigrants were found dead in the past week amid scorching South Texas ranch land, and the drought is partly to blame, Border Patrol agents said Thursday.

"It is very hot and the conditions are extremely dry," said Tom Slowinski, a Border Patrol agent in Sarita, where the latest victim was discovered.

The town, about 80 miles north of the Texas-Mexico border, is a common gateway for illegal immigrants heading north.

"It's hard when the people are walking out there, and they don't have any ways to sustain themselves," Slowinski said. "Unfortunately tragedies like this can happen."

The four women, all believed to be Mexican nationals, were discovered on ranch land near the immigration checkpoint here and another 30 miles west in Falfurrias. All died of dehydration or heat exhaustion, authorities said.

The drought searing the state contributed to their deaths because watering holes usually abundant with rain water are arid, agents said.

Aliens trying to reach interior U.S. cities often hike through blazing brush country with little or no resources and depend on natural lakes and ponds for drinking water.

"It used to be they could get water anywhere in the lakes, and now it's kind of hard. A lot of them are dried up already," said Chief Gavino Hernandez of the Kenedy County Sheriff's Department.

The latest victim was discovered Tuesday on the Kenedy Ranch, about six miles north of the Sarita checkpoint. The unidentified woman, believed to be in her late 20s and clothed in a T-shirt and shorts, was lying on a brushy trail commonly used by illegal aliens and smuggling organizations, Slowinski said.

"She probably couldn't keep up with the group that was being smuggled, and they left her behind," he said.

Another woman in her early 30s was found near the same spot on May 29 when her brother flagged down Border Patrol agents for help, said agent Roy Chavez.

"He said he and his sister had been walking all day, and she became ill sometime during the travel and collapsed," Chavez said. "By the time the agents and he got to where she was, she was already dead."

Chavez said the two were not carrying water.

Two other women were found dead of dehydration on May 28 in brushy areas about 15 miles northwest of the Falfurrias checkpoint.

Border Patrol agents said it is not uncommon for aliens to suffer from dehydration while crossing through Texas, particularly during the summer, when temperatures can sore into the high 90s and 100s. But finding four victims in one week is unusual, they said.

Chuck Roberson, patrol agent in charge of the Falfurrias station, said just two other immigrants have died in his region in the past 18 months, one from dehydration and the other of a snake bite.
"I can see the increase here," he said.

One problem is that more immigrants are entering the country through the region, Roberson said. Arrests of illegal aliens have increased from about 800 a month to more than 1,300 in the Falfurrias sector, he said.

"They're taking more chances by circumventing the checkpoints," he said.

Jonathan Jones, who heads a refugee and immigrant rights group in South Texas, said immigrants are becoming more desperate because of increased enforcement along the border.

"Dry, hot weather - indeed that's a problem, but the fact that people have to take increased risks to evade the Border Patrol increases the danger," he said. "I don't blame (the deaths) on the drought so much as I blame it on our border enforcement policy."

Mexican officials, meanwhile, said they plan to publicize the deaths in an effort to curtail the flow of immigrants northward.

"We are explaining that it is dangerous to come to the United States," said Jorge Espajel, deputy consul of the Mexican consulate in McAllen.