US heat wave preys on poor

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/jul2011/heat-j23.shtml

The heat wave engulfing much of the US and Canada is threatening the lives of those least able to protect themselves from extreme conditions of heat and humidity, especially the elderly, the poor, undocumented immigrants workers, and the infirm.

In south Texas, the Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol Sector has been put on alert for an increase in deaths among immigrants crossing the US-Mexican border in search of work. The heavy militarized presence of US immigration authorities at urban border crossings forces these workers and their families into remote desert crossings that become increasingly perilous in extreme heat.

Reuters News Service reported this week that the Border Patrol has already noted “an alarming spike in deaths of illegal immigrants.” The article quoted a supervisory agent from Edinburg, Texas, and the Rio Grande Valley sector, who said, “Cases of dehydration and heat exhaustion are way up. We are seeing it with elderly people, young children…who try to make it through the brush country in this heat.”

Along the Texas and Mexican border, many communities, commonly referred to as colonias, do not have electricity or running water.

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