The number of illegal border crossers found dead each year in Arizona's desert has not decreased along with the apprehensions.
The disparity suggests that illegal immigrants trying to cross Arizona's desert face a deadlier trek than ever.
The rate of death - the number of bodies found per 100,000 Border Patrol apprehensions - has been on the rise for the last decade. Even with a decrease in deaths in 2011, following a record-setting 2010, the rate has increased again.
Through the first 11 months of fiscal year 2011, there were 144 known deaths per 100,000 apprehensions in the area covered in the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson Sector, the Arizona Daily Star's border death database indicates.
That's up from 119 known deaths per 100,000 apprehensions in 2010; 39 known deaths per 100,000 apprehensions in 2004; and three per 100,000 apprehensions in 1998.
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