The recent fire in a factory in Bangladesh that claimed the lives of114 garment workers generated international headlines and calls for reform of working conditions in similar plants in Asia. Yet the ongoing human tragedy along the border with Mexico somehow escapes notice. Scores of mostly Mexican immigrants are dying trying to get across along the frontier. More than 120 bodies of human beings once treking through Brooks County alone in South Texas have been found this year. They died of exposure to harsh conditions, rattlesnakes, dehydration and foul play. The number of victims more likely reaches 500. Authorities estimate that only one in four victims is ever found. The chances of surviving are low.
This ghastly, sad human toll is only one of the imperatives that should be driving discussions about immigration in Washington. At the moment, though, there does not seem to be a draft plan being discussed uniformly by all interested parties. If a breakthrough is not soon achieved, it will be a long time before today’s propitious, post-election opportunity comes again. And, if the latest jobs report from the Department of Labor released last week indicates an economy turning around, then it will become again the magnet dulled by the Bush recession and by the slow recovery afterward. Would now not be the right time to put a system in place so that future immigrant waves are not chaotic repeats of the acrimony and suffering of the past three decades?