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By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 27, 2000; Page A21

Alarmed by the increasing number of migrants dying while illegally crossing from Mexico into the United States, Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris M. Meissner yesterday announced plans to step up the training of Border Patrol agents in lifesaving techniques.

The Border Patrol is developing a swift-water rescue training program for agents working along the 2,000-mile southwestern border. The agency also plans to retrain its agents in other lifesaving techniques in an effort to stem the fast-rising number of deaths along the border with Mexico.

Since October, 217 people have died along the border, while agents rescued 1,104 others and apprehended about 1.2 million illegal migrants, the Border Patrol reports. In the preceding 12 months, 231 migrants died along the border, most often by drowning or because they were weakened by hunger or dehydration after being abandoned in the desert by smugglers or coyotes who guide the vast majority of illegal migrant journeys.

The increase in deaths "is unacceptable," Meissner said. "We want to reduce the number of deaths and increase safety on both sides of the border."

The effort to step up agent training comes two years after the Border Patrol launched an initiative aimed at reducing migrant fatalities--both from violence at the hands of smugglers or bandits and from exposure or accidents that occur while illegal crossers are trying to make their way into the United States.

In addition to identifying the most dangerous crossing points and putting up signs warning of perils--such as long stretches of desert, poisonous snakes or fast-moving waterways--Border Patrol agents are actively seeking out migrants who venture into treacherous terrain without adequate water, food or protection from the elements.

The INS also has taken to posting signs in its offices warning migrants not to trust the often ruthless smugglers--a message that they hope will be transmitted to family back home.

Still, the efforts have not managed to stem the desire of the millions of people desperate enough to risk their lives--and the lives of their young children--for a chance to share in the economic opportunity available in the United States.

Late last month, for instance, Border Patrol agents rescued an 18-month-old girl who was left in the desert with her sick mother, who died before they found her. Other migrants have drowned in deceptively dangerous rivers or canals, succumbed to oppressive heat deep in the southwestern outback or been hit by trains after falling asleep on remote sections of track.

Even as the Border Patrol is touting its efforts to save migrants, the agency has faced criticism for pursuing an enforcement strategy that some say is indirectly causing many of the deaths by forcing migrants away from cities and into harsh country.

Immigration officials have erected miles of heavy steel fences along stretches of the border and focused patrols near population centers such as San Diego, Nogales, Ariz., and El Paso, Tex., that were once popular among those who wanted to enter the United States illegally. That has pushed illegal border crossers into the remote desert.

Not only has that proven dangerous to migrants, but the strategy's effects have prompted a backlash from some ranchers in remote sections of Arizona. Those ranchers have taken the law into their own hands by rounding up migrants and holding them for Border Patrol agents--a practice that immigration officials have discouraged.

"We make the ranchers know this is the job of the Border Patrol," Meissner said.

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