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At Arizona's border morgue, bodies keep coming despite drop in illegal traffic
• TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- The body of Ildefonso Martinez arrived on a Friday night last April as John Doe, Case No. 12-01000. He wore black Nike shoes, a Perry Ellis belt, jeans with a 34-inch waist, a Casio watch.
• For medical examiners at the Pima County morgue, his was an unusual case. Not in how he died -- making the same arduous journey that has claimed thousands of illegal immigrants -- but rather because he was identified so quickly.
• The death of migrants crossing the border has long been a tragic consequence of illegal immigration and, many say, the increase in U.S. border enforcement. For some, the problem is a powerful motivator in pushing Congress to act this year on immigration reform. But critics say proposals offered so far call for more enforcement with few specifics on how to save lives.
• "The language coming out is alarmingly more of the same," said Kat Rodriguez of Coalicion de Derechos Humanos in Tucson, who gathers information on missing migrants from family and friends to give to medical examiners trying to identify the dead.
• Thousands more Border Patrol agents, hundreds of miles of fencing, and cameras, sensors and aircraft have made it more difficult to enter the U.S. illegally, prompting smugglers to guide migrants to remote deserts. People walk up to a week in debilitating heat, often with enough bottled water and canned tuna to last only days.
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Volunteer intern fatally mauled at California wild animal park after entering lion's enclosure
• DUNLAP, Calif. (AP) -- Authorities are trying to determine what provoked a lion at an exotic animal park in Central California to attack and maul to death a 24-year-old woman, who had been on the job as an intern there for just a few weeks.
• Authorities said the woman was attacked and killed when she entered the male African lion's enclosure at Cat Haven about 45 miles east of Fresno.
• Sheriff's deputies responding to an emergency call from Cat Haven found the woman severely injured and still lying inside the enclosure with the lion nearby, Fresno County sheriff's Lt. Bob Miller said.
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