Death and Taxes: The grisly toll of illegal immigration on Pima County

Death and Taxes: The grisly toll of illegal immigration on Pima County

An ID card. A small stack of pesos. A battered watch.
These are the final possessions of an illegal immigrant who didn't survive his trek to the United States. They've been neatly bagged and spread out on a tray at the county morgue, waiting to be catalogued and used to identify the dead man, so his family can be notified that he perished on his quest for the promised land.

Dr. Bruce Parks, Pima County's medical examiner, oversees the grisly tasks of recovering the ever-growing number of bodies of illegal immigrants who die from exposure in the desert.

Over the last six years, at least 848 bodies have been brought to the county morgue, located in the shadow of Kino Hospital on Ajo Way. While some were killed in car wrecks, most died from the brutal summer heat or the winter chill, says Parks.

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