The ongoing borderlands tragedy

Right now our minds here in Arizona are on the devastating fires in the east and south of the state. In the meantime, the migrant tragedy of deportation, forced family separation and death in the desert continues.

Since the federal fiscal year began on Oct. 1, the remains of 88 migrants have been found along Arizona's border with Mexico. And now we are in the fierce heat of June -- triple digits here in Tucson for at least the next seven days. The number of merciless deaths by dehydration and hyperthermia is bound to go up.

Anyone reading this who also follows me on Twitter has seen a lot of border information links that I have posted. Here is a brief update on some factors.

* 10,581 men, women and children were deported to Nogales (62 miles south of Tucson) during January and February. (Source: Mexico's National Institute of Migration) Many of those folks had been in the US for years, in some cases decades. These are the latest Nogales numbers that I have, but I see the deportations continuing relentlessly. Many deportees do not even have so much as a traffic infraction against them.

* Last month, the number of backlogged federal immigration court cases was approaching 300,000.

* President Obama could singlehandedly stop the deportation of young people eligible for the always-blocked Dream Act, but he refuses to do so. (And I don't know why.)

* The United Nations estimates that smuggling migrants across Mexico's border with the U.S. alone is a $6.6 billion business annually, compared with an estimated $10 billion to $29 billion in illegal drug running.

Yet comprehensive immigration reform is nowhere to be seen on the horizon.