Posted on 08/21/2011 9:31:35 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
FALFURRIAS — Sergio Gaspar died a slow death in an area known as the desert of McAllen.
Workers at Cage Ranch found the partially-decomposed body of the Ecuadorian immigrant Monday — a day before his 35th birthday.
Half naked and already beginning to bloat, Gaspar was the 32nd victim of the violent heat and tough terrain in Brooks County this year. Deputies have counted at least 35 bodies found on the ranchlands this year.
The ranchlands, which cover 60 to 70 percent of the nearly 950-square-mile county, are known to many illegal immigrants as the desert of McAllen — even though the city is about 60 miles south of the region. The term derives in part from their lack of knowledge of the geography and also because of the sandy terrain that dominates the area.
Thousands trek the Brooks County wilderness for days at a time in an attempt to bypass the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint, where 8,074 immigrants had been caught and 251,001 pounds of narcotics had been seized as of Aug. 15.
The checkpoint is seen as one of the last hurdles for illegal immigrants heading north. Bypassing it is a daunting task.
It takes about an hour to walk a mile in the sand. With triple-digit heat and virtually no water supply, not everyone survives.
“I know them by numbers,” Maggie Saenz said of those who don’t.
Saenz, the secretary at the Brooks County Sheriff’s Office, helps keep track of the dead by keeping their individual files numbered within several binders. Pictures of corpses and human remains not intended for the weak-stomached fill the pages along with copies of other personal information.
The Sheriff’s Office must investigate every death outside of the Falfurrias Police Department’s jurisdiction, including those of illegal immigrants, said Daniel Davila, the department’s only investigator.
Border Patrol does not have the authority to investigate, said agency spokeswoman Rosalinda Huey. So the task of figuring out whose remains were found, how they died and how to notify their families falls upon the shoulders of a handful of people at the Sheriff’s Office.
Need to get control of the border to stop it. Its the most effective way.
And sealing off the border is supposed to be “cruel”.
Yeah, right.
Janet and Barry say that this isn’t happening and that our borders are more secure now than they ever have been.
Agree with "Prayers Up." May God have mercy on his soul; their souls; our souls.
They could always just stay home. Or come over legally across the bridge. Just sayin.
According to the article the title is wrong
This article is about illegal aliens...
not immigrants..
Not wishing misfortune on anyone—but I have to also say that they are doing this by choice. They could have stayed home and entered the country legally, the way my grandparents on my mom’s side did. It wasn’t easy, but they didn’t die of heat and dehydration on some godforsaken desert either.
Guy and the rest of them died breaking the law. No pity. Let the bodies pile up and we won’t need to build a wall.
Too bad he died.
Shouldn’t have been there in the first place though.
Bad decisions can have bad consequences.
Boo-hoo. Are we now supposed to build "a pathway to the US" in addition to "creating a path to citizenship"? Should we remove that EEEEVIL checkpoint that is killing poor-but-honest, hard working, illegal "immigrants"?
I couldn't help but notice they do NOT mention how many, if any, of these "immigrants" are drug mules, though they do tell us how much is intercepted at the checkpoint.
Yet another Sunday Sermon sob-story pounding the drum for "comprehensive imigration reform".
How's this for "reform": Stay Home; Stay Legal; Stay Safe
Give illegal aliens a path to citizenship through military service; then send your immigrant army right back south and annex Mexico. Clean the wasps’ nests out and make it a fit place to live, and they could become the most prosperous states in the United States.
You wanna invade us? Let it work both ways. You want US citizenship so badly? You can all have it...you can shoulder the burden with the rest of us instead of cutting in line for the gravy train.
P.S. ...Mexico’s southern border needs a whole lot less fence ;)
This has been happening since long before Bush. My husband found a human skull in Maverick County at least 20 years ago.
Approximately 500 illegals die each year trying to walk across the desert after they have illegally entered the USA.
The actual number is higher because many bodies are not found in the desert.
A mine field would deter them from entering. The number of deaths would plummet. This would be a humanitarian move
Hey! I thought immigration matters, including illegal immigration, was strictly a Federal issue and that state and local jurisdictons had no business interfering.
I agree.
The bleeding-heart author knows this how exactly? He's dead and no one was there to see it happen. Could've just keeled over and been dead in a second. But then, these stories always need lot of drama, don't they.
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