At Arizona's border morgue, bodies keep coming - Los Angeles Local News, Weather, and Traffic

At Arizona's border morgue, bodies keep coming

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  • Immigration

  • The Senate Judiciary Committee is aiming this week to pass a landmark immigration bill to secure the border and offer citizenship to millions, setting up a high-stakes debate on the Senate floor.
    Senate supporters of far-reaching immigration legislation accepted minor changes in public while negotiating over more sweeping alterations in private Monday as they drove toward expected Judiciary Committee approval by...
  • Representatives of Pinal County and the federal government have started discussing the possibility of renegotiating the county's money-losing contract to house federal immigration detainees in the county jail in...
    Representatives of Pinal County and the federal government have started discussing the possibility of renegotiating the county's money-losing contract to house federal immigration detainees in the county jail in Florence.
  • The current system of immigration enforcement and deportation produces a constant flow of people north and south that provides the cartel with a vulnerable labor pool and steady source of revenue.
    The current system of immigration enforcement and deportation produces a constant flow of people north and south that provides the cartel with a vulnerable labor pool and steady source of revenue.

By ELLIOT SPAGAT
Associated Press

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - The body of Ildefonso Martinez arrived on a Friday night last April as John Doe. For examiners at the Pima County morgue, his was an unusual case. Not in how he died - making the same journey that has claimed thousands of illegal immigrants - but rather because he was identified so quickly.

The death of migrants crossing the border has long been a tragic consequence of illegal immigration. For some, it is also a motivator in pushing Congress to act this year on immigration reform.

In the last 15 years, at least 5,513 migrants have been found dead along the U.S.-Mexico border, including 463 in fiscal year 2012, the Border Patrol reports.

The Tucson sector located 177 bodies in 2012, including that of Martinez.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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