More Immigrants Shot, Killed/Injured in AZ
by chaparral Friday, Feb. 09, 2007 at 1:53 PM

http://deletetheborder.org/node/1951

More immigrants were shot at this week, following an attack by men in camoflauge and berets that left a man dead and another wounded on January 27th. This latest incident, which occured yesterday northwest of Tucson, came one day after a robbery of 13 immigrants close to the border.

On Thursday, gunmen shot at a northbound pickup truck headed north on a dirt road, some 10 to 12 miles south and west of the Silver Bell copper mine. The gunfire forced the truck, carrying nine or 10 undocumented immigrants, to stop - and killed a man and a 15-year-old girl in the back seat, while wounding a woman and two other men, one fatally.

Authorities have not determined who the gunmen were. They and the immigrants' driver, believed to be a smuggler, and a guide remained at large.

In only one of four news stories I read on this latest shooting did a journalist link the shooting that occured under two weeks ago. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it was vigilantes/racists, but i also acknowledge that a situation has been created where all sorts of crime occurs related to smuggling and drug trafficking, so i would have no way of knowing what happened. However, all of these issues- even the fact that immigrants die of the heat or of lack of water or of cold while crossing the desert- are related. They're related because immigrants are seen as exploitable and disposable.

Border "security" has created a situation where people have to cross dangerous terrain. Border crossers are desperate and others can profit from taking advantage of them- charging high prices, and often not following through, sometimes stealing even more money and ditching the immigrants. Women's bodies are targets of some of the coyotes' exploitation as well. There are plenty of honest well-meaning coyotes, but plenty of shitty ones too, the latter given free reign because of the desperation that has been caused by the mexican and u.s. governments, corporations, and capitalism in general.

Therefore, even if it was not white vigilante-types who shot at the immigrants (although from all the hate speech i've seen i really wouldn't be surprised if it was), their deaths are still on their hands. Instead of fixing the root of the problem, their "solution" is to call people names, turn them into criminals (by creating more laws), make them more desperate, and more exploitable, and therefore more disposable. They're making it okay for immigrants to die. It makes me really sick.

www.deletetheborder.org/chaparral

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