Passing immigration reform is now a humanitarian necessity to prevent more needless deaths

LatinaLista — Amid the debate over comprehensive immigration reform, arguments have centered over how such a bill would affect the undocumented immigrants who are here. But no one is looking at the bigger picture of how such a bill could affect the migrants who are still making their way to the U.S. — SB 1070 or not.

We know they’re still coming. The dead bodies in one southern Arizona morgue are proof of that.

It’s being reported that authorities have already discovered the remains of 170 migrants who died in the Arizona desert trying to cross the border illegally and that this year will be a record breaker with more bodies yet to be discovered.

Experts feel that the unusual warm temperatures are proving to be more deadly this year for people who are just desperate to get here.

But in an odd irony, these migrants who died in the desert were the lucky ones.

At least, they didn’t die from torture, abuse or execution.

Today, Mexican authorities report that they discovered 72 bodies at a ranch in northeast Mexico. All of the victims were undocumented migrants from Central and South America.

Their crime? Trying to cross into the U.S. illegally.

Their misfortune? Coming in contact with a drug cartel that now preys on U.S.-bound migrants.

If it had not been for the heroics of one Ecuadorian immigrant, with a bullet wound to his neck, who escaped and found a military checkpoint and told the authorities, the largest discovery of bodies in Mexico’s 4-year-old war on organized crime would have never happened.

Each of the 72 men and women from Honduras, Brazil, Ecuador and El Salvador were on their way to the United States for a reason. Whether it was to reunite with their families or look for work, each suffered a fate that could be avoided if there was a comprehensive immigration reform bill on the books.

Part of the frustration of Congressional opponents towards working on reforming immigration policies is the feeling that what was done in the past made no difference — and they’re right, for a simple reason.

There exists a mindset that reforming immigration policies only matters to the immigrants who are already here. No leader has had the vision to create an immigration bill that addresses the eternal desire of migrants from poor countries wanting to come here to work and elevate their stations in life.

We see every day that such a human desire surpasses the fear of triple digit desert temperatures, increased border enforcement or the risk of being executed by drug cartels.

Reforming immigration policy isn’t just for the United States but for all of our neighbors in the Americas. There has to be new policies created that accept this reality that people will continue to come.

We are still too much of a Superpower country to turn our backs and pretend that we have no accountability in these needless deaths.

We certainly do.

As long as the GOP continues to play politics and act in a cowardly way to avoid addressing immigration reform with Democrats, then thanks to them, the U.S. is an accessory to these senseless murders.

All it takes is putting aside egos and differences to come to the table and work on something that is truly for the greater good.

Why is that so hard when people are dying?