Contact:
Louie Gilot
Communications Director
Border Network for Human Rights
(915) 217-3621
lgilot@bnhr.org

Day of the Dead events and Press conference Sunday, November 1, 2009

El PASOANS MARK DAY OF THE DEAD BY HONORING MIGRANT DEATHS
200 El Pasoans to March to Border Fence for Vigil and Protest
El Paso, TX – Nov. 1, 2009 – As border enforcement has gotten tighter in recent years, apprehensions of undocumented immigrants have decreased noticeably. However, the number of men, women and children who die each year while crossing the border in search of a better life is increasing, according to official statistics. There were 398 such deaths in 2007; 390 in 2008 (San Diego Union Tribune); and 378 in the first 11 months of fiscal year 2009, heading toward a total that is expected to top last year’s (Associated Press).
In El Paso, 9 migrants drowned at various spots in the American Canal and two were found in the desert, since January 2009, as per the records of the Mexican Consulate. (The Mexican Consulate in El Paso gets notified of such deaths by the Border Patrol or the Medical Examiner’s office.) The migrants who drowned in our sector were an unidentified man in his 20s (March 14), an unidentified man (March 23); a 46-year old man from Orizaba, Veracruz (April 23); a 37-year-old man from Mexico City (May 9); a 20-year-old man from Los Reyes La Paz, Mexico (May 19); an 18-year-old man from San Luis Potosi (May 25); a 30-year-old man from Guadalajara (June 1); a 16-year-old man from Juárez (July 31); and an unidentified man (Sept. 5). The migrants who died in the desert were a 43-year-old Juarense found 26 miles from Sierra Blanca (June 11) and a 36-year-old man from Hidaldo del Parral, Chihuahua, found 2.5 miles from Columbus, N.M. (Sept. 3).
This ongoing humanitarian crisis is the product of global economic forces that draw immigrants north and U.S. border enforcement policies that push them to take ever greater risks to make the trip. The Border Network for Human Rights appeals to the government of the United States to reform the broken immigration system and adopt more sensible border policies that focus on real criminal threats. The Border Network also calls upon the government of Mexico to create an environment where men and women are not tempted to risk their lives and the lives of their children to leave their country.
Sunday (All Saints Day), about 200 El Pasoans will honor migrants who died while trying to cross the border by placing white wooden crosses along the border fence, by marching to the border and having a candle light vigil with traditional pan de muertos. We invite the media to join us in the following events.

Photo opportunity: Community members set up crosses on the border fence
When: 10 a.m. Saturday, October 31, 2009
Where: Border Highway, by the Chamizal

**Press conference**
When: 4 p.m., Sunday, November 1, 2009
Where: Armijo Park, E. 7th Avenue and S. Campbell Street

March
When: 4:30 p.m., Sunday, November 1, 2009
Where: Start at Armijo Park; south on E. 7th Avenue; take S. Cotton Street; south on Delta Drive; end on Delta and Cypress.

Candle lights vigil
When: 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., Sunday, November 1, 2009
Where: Delta and Cypress


Please join us.

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More information on the Border Network for Human Rights: This organization, founded in 1998, is one of the leading immigration reform and human rights advocacy organization in the United States. Based in El Paso, the BNHR counts about 3,500 members in El Paso and Southern New Mexico.

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