By Maria Leon

TUCSON, Arizona – The number of deaths of undocumented immigrants in the Arizona desert increased by 20 percent during the 2009 fiscal year, despite extreme vigilance and the efforts of humanitarian organizations.

Since Oct. 1, 2008 until Aug. 31 this year, 191 undocumented immigrants have died, mostly Mexicans, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector.

Last year during the same period, 159 deaths were reported.

“I’m sure that once all the deaths in September are added up, we will easily show more than 200 fatalities,” Rev. Robin Hoover, founder and director of Compassionate Borders, a group that every week puts water in the desert for illegal aliens, told Efe.

“In the past few years an average of 180 undocumented immigrants have died each year in the Arizona desert. Again this year we see the percentage of deaths on the rise,” said Hoover, who Sunday led a ceremony in Tucson in remembrance of the victims.

During the religious service, the names of each of the dead was read, while members of the congregation carried white crosses. Victims who could not be identified were simply referred to as “unknown.”

“In 1995 no deaths of undocumented immigrants were reported, and now we’re getting close to 200 or maybe more,” the minister said.

In his opinion, the deaths of illegal aliens are directly related to the aggressive Border Patrol strategy that obliges immigrants to cross at places farther out in the desert.

“This strategy is designed to cause more deaths,” Hoover said.

The activist said that while the Border Patrol has reported a decrease in the number of people crossing the border illegally, the percentage of deaths has significantly increased.

During the present fiscal year the Tucson Sector has reported the arrests of 226,344 undocumented immigrants, a drop of 24 percent compared with fiscal year 2008.

For his part, Jorge Gomez, spokesman for the Border Patrol in Tucson, told Efe that most of the responsibility for deaths of illegal aliens in the desert must be assigned to people traffickers, better known as “coyotes.”

“These people don’t care about the lives of immigrants, they just see them as business and don’t hesitate to leave them to their fate in the desert,” Gomez said.

He said that traffickers continue to trick illegals by telling them they will only have to walk a few hours through the desert, when they really end up walking for days.

“No one can carry enough water to survive so many days in the desert,” the agent said.

The Tuscon Sector, which includes 90 percent of the border between Arizona and the Mexican state of Sonora, is currently guarded by 3,300 Border Patrol agents.

This region annually reports more than 40 percent of all undocumented-immigrant arrests along the entire Mexican border, as well as most of the deaths.

Gomez said that the presence of more agents also allows a larger area of the desert to be covered, which has meant that more human remains have been found.

The spokesman said that during the current fiscal year, which ends Wednesday, 549 rescues have been reported, while last year there were 444.

“We need to reform our immigration policy and give those undocumented immigrants who are already in hiding the chance to come out of the shadows, and also to approve a guest-worker program that allows workers to enter the country legally. As long as we’re unwilling to do that, we won’t see any real changes,” Hoover said.

Gomez said that the final figure for fiscal year 2009 will not be available until mid-October. EFE