Essay 247

Interesting statistics from the November 28, 2005 U.S. News & World Report special report on Border Wars:

>In the fiscal year that ended in September, the Border Patrol reported 1.19 million arrests, compared with 932,000 in fiscal year 2003.

>The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that the number of illegal immigrants in the United States has grown from 8.4 million in 2000 to 11 million today.

>An October CBS News poll showed that 78 percent of Americans think the government is not doing enough to control the borders.

>In 1993, the Border Patrol made fewer than 1 in 10 of their arrests in Arizona. By 2000, the figure was nearly 37 percent.

>Almost 150 [illegal immigrants] died in the Arizona desert in the broiling summer of 2003. In the fiscal year that just ended, at least 460 people died along the southwest border. Wayne Cornelius, director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California-San Diego, says the actual numbers of deaths could be two to three times as high.

>In the past two years, the Border Patrol there has hired close to 1,000 agents.

>The Border Patrol's Yuma sector, which includes the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, saw a staggering 54 percent jump in arrests in fiscal year 2005.

>Officers on the southwest border reported being assaulted at least 687 times in fiscal year 2005, a spike from just 384 the year before.