Arizona HATE Watch: Vigilantes In Camouflage Murder Innocent Latino Migrants

Last Sunday evening, April 8, near Eloy Arizona, a gang of camouflaged gunmen opened fire on a pickup truck filled with innocent Latino immigrants killing two passengers. According to police, the truck was going through a wash that's "commonly used for human smuggling," and the occupants of the truck were "ambushed" as the camo/rifle shooters opened fire on them.

The vehicle, thought to be carrying at least 30 innocent immigrants, was ambushed by these camouflaged killers carrying rifles. After the shots were fired and the two were killed, the remaining passengers fled into the desert for safety. The police found five survivors hiding, in fear for their lives. After being interviewed by the local police, these five survivors were handed over to the Border Patrol. The police said the witness' description of the shooters: A bunch of people with rifles and camouflage clothing.

Spokesman for the Pima County Police Department Dawn Barkman said it is unknown exactly how many of these camouflage-clothed marauders with rifles were shooting at the truck full of "illegal immigrants" and Barkman wasn't up for speculating about who exactly was wearing camo and shooting people coming across the border. Barkman said the camouflage clothing and the rifles were just about the only two things the victims relayed about the shooters.


It is not the first time that gangs in camouflage have attacked vehicles passing through this area. In January 2007, four men wearing camouflage and berets and armed with an assault weapon killed a smuggling suspect and wounded another person after ambushing a vehicle in a field about 40miles north of Eloy. Then, two months later, gunmen wearing dark clothing ambushed a vehicle loaded with more than 20 migrants near Green Valley, south of Tucson, killing two people.

Border Patrol agents from Casa Grande responded to the shooting along with officers from Eloy and Coolidge. The names of the two victims have not yet been released.

Will the Police seriously investigate this crime and arrest and convict these marauding, camouflaged murderers? Or will this crime remain unsolved, as the previous attacks and the hundreds of uninvestigated rapes against Latinas in Arizona?

Border Deaths: While Rate of Illegal Immigration is at a 20 year Low, the Death Rate of Border Crossers in Arizona is at a 5 year High!

Illegal immigration into the United States has slowed considerably in the last several years, a study released Wednesday concludes. The decline marks the first significant turnaround in two decades, researchers with the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center say. As a result, the U.S. illegal immigrant population may have fallen as much as 8 percent from 2007 to 2009.

"We've seen a reversal in what had been the long-term growth in the illegal immigrant population," researcher Jeffrey S. Passel said Wednesday. An estimated 11.1 million illegal immigrants live in the United States. Possibly because of tighter enforcement measures and economic circumstances driving some immigrants back home, the population is down from its estimated 2007 peak of 12 million. "Particularly along the southern border, enforcement has ramped up considerably," Passel said. "It's harder and more dangerous for immigrants to cross into the country."

While studies prove the numbers are at a 20 year low, the death rate along the Arizona border is at a 5 year high! Deaths of illegal immigrants in Arizona have soared this summer toward their highest levels since 2005 - a fact that has surprised many who thought that the furor over the state's new immigration law and the 100-plus degree heat would draw them elsewhere along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border.

But at the Pima County morgue in Tucson, Ariz., the body bags are stacked on stainless-steel shelves from floor to ceiling. (Imagine the carnage!) A refrigerated truck has been brought in to handle the overflow at the multimillion dollar facility.

In July, 59 people died - 40 in the first two weeks when nighttime temperatures were the hottest in recorded history, hovering around the low 90s. The single-month death count is second only to July 2005, when 68 bodies were found.

Of this July's deaths, 44 were on the Tohono O'Odham Nation, a reservation the size of Connecticut that shares 75 miles of Arizona's border with Mexico, in Pima County - the home of the murder of Brisenia Flores, the location of the Neo-Nazi's and Minutemen's border stalkings. The Tohono tribe is opposed to humanitarian aid on its lands, believing it invites violence. Eighteen more people died in the first 23 days of August. Even with the prospect of a torturous death, and the bitter wrath they face in Arizona - Minutemen, Neo-Nazis and Arpaio, the immigrants, say the state's vast, sparsely populated terrain is still the best place for border jumpers. One can only imagine the horror these innocents face in their homeland that causes them to take such risks.

Reference:
Migrants say Arizona worth risk of crossing
Study: Illegal immigration has slowed considerably

Thank God! There ARE Humanitarians Among Us on the Border! Perhaps there IS Hope for Our World!

As Jesus said, "Whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren, you do unto me." The Humanitarian group, "No More Deaths" is living by His words. Perhaps there is hope for our world yet!
abc15.com reports:
ARIVACA, AZ (where little Brisenia Flores was murdered by MM's Shawna Forde & Gunny Bush)- A group on the border is fighting a different kind of immigration battle, as the death toll among illegal immigrants skyrockets.
Chris Fleischman is an engineer with an aerospace company in Phoenix. But when he’s not testing plane engines, Fleischman is out in the desert with the humanitarian aid group No More Deaths. The group gives food, water and medical aid to migrants crossing through the desert. Volunteers come from around the country and base themselves at a camp on the private land of a woman who supports their cause. The camp includes a small kitchen, several tents, an eating area and a medical tent, where people can recover if they are dehydrated or have heat stroke or hypothermia. Volunteers spend their days hiking for miles in extreme heat, making their way through rough terrain, looking for people who need help and leaving bottles of fresh water in the desert. They created maps and paths with the help of a GPS, based on where they have seen people in the past.

It is rare for volunteers to come in contact with border crossers during the middle of the day. Fleischman says they usually make the trip at night, when it’s easier to hide and the weather is cooler. Extreme temperatures aren’t the only problem the immigrants face. The land is thick with vegetation. Animals like rattle snakes, scorpions and coyotes run wild. “If you don’t have good lights, and they probably don’t, there’s just not very much chance you’re going to walk out of here and not get injured,” said Fleischman. Volunteers say by the time they come in contact with many of the people crossing the border, the immigrants are so exhausted and weak, they are ready to turn back to Mexico and ask No More Deaths to call Border Patrol.

The Pima County medical examiner says there have been so many deaths in the desert among illegal immigrants crossing the southern border, the office is using a refrigerated truck to store some of the bodies. July was the second deadliest month on record. The death toll in that county alone so far this year is 153 people. “I think more migrants are taking bigger risks by going farther away from the normal routes of travel to get away from all the border militarization that we’ve built up around here,” said Fleischman.

Border Patrol spokesman David Jimarez says Border Patrol does not officially support or endorse humanitarian aid groups like No More Deaths, because of the danger volunteers could meet armed drug and human smugglers in the desert. But he says Border Patrol appreciates the eyes and ears on the ground, volunteers who take on the 2,000 miles of borderland to save lives by giving border crossers food, water and medical attention. Jimarez says coyotes usually don’t prepare the people they smuggle for the dangers that lie ahead, and that it is not even humanly possible to take enough water across the border before making it to civilization.

After dark, two men make their way to the camp looking for help. “They can’t walk along the road at night, first of all, because it’s easy to get lost, and second of all, because the Border Patrol could easily pick them up,” said one volunteer who asked not to be identified. The humanitarian group is not allowed to give migrants rides or let them stay at camp for prolonged periods of time. “That’s sort of a protocol that No More Deaths has laid out, mainly that we’re not going to further someone’s presence here, because we’re not here to be a shipping service for migrants. We’re just here to save lives.” Volunteers give the men food and water and send them on their way.

When asked how the group responds to critics who suggest volunteers are helping people enter the United States illegally, Fleischman says humanitarian aid is not a crime. “It's a humanitarian issue,” he said. “Our government needs to address why people are coming, and until that time, we want to reduce the numbers of people who are dying every day here. This has been the worst month in our history, and we just need to reduce the deaths. It's not an illegal thing to help people who need help.” But the group has come under fire for its work.

Volunteers often find slashed water containers. In 2008, Dan Millis and several other volunteers were fined for littering, after leaving water bottles in a wildlife refuge where he found body days earlier. Millis and others were found guilty in court. Mills appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court on principal, and is waiting for a decision.
Empty water bottles, food packages, backpacks, articles of clothing and blankets can be found scattered around the desert, and some people who live on the border have expressed anger about trash strewn around the pristine land. “It's something that we don't like to see either, and we pick it up,” said Fleischman.

In a lush, green area surrounded by pink rock and flowing water, volunteers constructed a shrine for a 14-year-old girl named Josseline who died of hypothermia while trying to lead her younger brother across the border. Volunteers leave water at the shrine, so other immigrants who pass through the area can avoid a similar fate. For now, the group just hopes they can save more lives, no matter what side of the border they are from. Stay tuned next week for the story of a border rancher and good friend of murder victim Rob Krentz, who says he fears for his life and supports tougher border security. Find out why he says he supports the efforts of No More Deaths.