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‘Qué Pasa’ in Immigration: Save Selvin!; Deaths in the Desert

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Religious leaders and activists in Maine ask their state’s senators to protect DREAMers one and all; between the Arizona desert and the Tamaulipas massacre, crossing the border continues to be incredibly dangerous for immigrants; and even though more citizens are born to immigrants every day, and more naturalized citizens register to vote, some politicians still think demonizing immigrants is a good idea.

Save Selvin! News agencies EFE and Notimex report that advocates and religious leaders are asking Maine Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins (both Republican) to intervene to stop Selvin Arévalo from being deported, and to provide leadership in pushing for the advancement of the DREAM Act. According to Notimex, Lynn Tramonte, deputy director of America’s Voice, said yesterday on a press teleconference that the bill “is a piece of common-sense bipartisan legislation that will benefit not only these students but our nation.”

Deaths in the desert. The AP reports that death rates continue to rise among immigrants crossing the Arizona desert. According to the agency, deaths:

“shot up in the first six months of 2010 to their highest levels since 2005, a fact which has shocked many who had assumed that the state’s new immigration law and temperatures of around 100 degrees Fahrenheit would cause them to seek out other parts of the vast border between Mexico and the United States.”

59 immigrants died in the Arizona sector in July, the highest monthly toll since July 2005, when there were 68 deaths.