Under a stand of scrubby mesquite, job seekers from impoverished regions of Mexico and Central America sit on fallen branches to swig electrolyte solution in preparation for a dangerous sojourn in the Sonoran Desert.

Scattered among the cactus and yucca, crudely fashioned crosses provide them with an ominous road map into Arizona -- monuments to those felled by the desert and, some critics say, U.S. immigration policy.

"Operation Gatekeeper is the policy of death," Tohono O'odham Vice Chairman Henry Ramon said of the effort that has made the border almost impenetrable in populated areas, pushing migrants into more dangerous terrain.

"We are very opposed to any kind of policy that would cause harm toward human beings," said Ramon, adding that his tribe has lived in the Sonoran Desert since before there was a Mexico or a United States.

"Our people do not recognize this imaginary line that is an international boundary," he said.

DEADLY DESERT HEAT

So far this year, more than 90 undocumented immigrants have died on or near the Tohono O'odham Nation, Indian tribal lands that extend from southern Arizona into the Mexican state of Sonora.

The region is so deadly that nearby Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is often closed to tourists during the summer, when sun shimmering off the red rocks and sand heats the desert floor to 130 degrees F.

The park rangers' union has called Organ Pipe the most dangerous national park in the country two years in a row.

But Ramon said the real danger is an immigration policy that forces the undocumented to choose between living in poverty and dying in the desert.

The tribe is horrified their homeland has become a graveyard for restless spirits, and have dubbed the migrant trail the Devil's Path.

"(The policy) stains our land with the blood of our neighbors, and pierces the hearts of our people," Ramon said.

The U.S. Justice Department ( news - web sites) began Operation Gatekeeper seven years ago. The get-tough policy concentrates Border Patrol efforts at nine major border crossings in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

Agents were equipped with infrared night scopes and electronic sensors to detect migrants, and four-wheel-drive vehicles to chase them down.

Apprehensions jumped in San Diego, California -- the historical preference for 40 percent of illegal crossers -- causing migration patterns to shift to less frequently patrolled desert regions.

Migrant deaths appear to have skyrocketed as well.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service says accurate statistics are not available before Operation Gatekeeper began in 1995. But a coalition of immigrant rights groups culled available reports from medical examiners' offices and other border sources and estimated the 1995 death figure to be near 61.

Last year, according to official Border Patrol statistics, 336 migrants died crossing the southwest border.

COYOTES SAID TO BLAME

Border Patrol spokesman Mario Villarreal faults the coyotes, or smugglers, who collect large fees to bring migrants across the border.

Villarreal said the INS regularly warns of the dangers of crossing illegally but the Border Patrol has already rescued more than 1,550 people this year.

Teen-ager Nicolas Perez never heard the public service announcements on radio and television. The home where his family lives in southern Chiapas has no electricity.

About a week ago, federal agents plucked the 17-year-old from the desert, suffering from the cramps associated with severe dehydration, but he was not grateful.

A coyote was to take Perez to New York, where a job, apartment and the older brother he idolizes are waiting.

The youth was near tears when the director of the Mexican shelter where he was left by authorities told him he would be on a homebound bus the next day.

"It was my chance," the rail-thin Perez said.

Perez had no idea what the journey entailed. He had expected to be in New York -- more than 2,000 miles away -- within a day of crossing the border on foot.

But he was adamant he will try again.

O'odham native Ana Antone said she rarely saw migrants when she was growing up on the tribe's domain in Mexico.

"Now you see dozens of them every day," she said.

THE GATE

Antone came to a piece of wire strung between wooden posts that marks "la puerta" -- the gate from Mexico into the United States.

On weekends, the Mexican side of the gate teems with vendors, hawking food, water and soft drinks.

But one day recently there were only four Mexican men, part of a group from Tijuana, Baja California, that had put up 18 water stations in the Mexican states of Baja California and Sonora.

Carlos Aguilar said he believes their efforts will save lives. That morning he counted more than 100 migrants in need of water.

But Antone was not so certain.

She said she wonders at the naivete of migrants who pass through, casting off stylish shoes, family photos, extra clothing, hair spray, toothpaste and many cans of food that became too heavy to carry.

"They have no idea what they're getting into," she said. "I hate to see them come with high dreams, only to die."

Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

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