PHOENIX - The number of illegal immigrants dying while crossing America's southern border fell for the second straight year.
Four hundred people perished while entering the United States from Mexico in the fiscal year ending on Sept. 30, down 12 percent from the 453 deaths in the previous year.
The U.S. Border Patrol attributes the lower numbers to tighter border enforcement and efforts by agents to seek out immigrants who are crossing in especially remote and perilous terrain.
The death figures dropped in seven of the nine Border Patrol sectors along the border. The increases came in the Tucson and Laredo sectors.
The record for migrant deaths came in 2005, when the Border Patrol reported 494 deaths.
