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Build a fence, and people will just go around it – or die trying. So concludes a study that looked at the effects that heightened security on the US-Mexico border has had on illegal immigration.

Over the years, millions of would-be immigrants have attempted to cross the border illegally into Texas and California. Now fences and increased surveillance close to border cities in these states, such as El Paso and San Diego, appear to be funnelling illegal immigrants into thinly populated areas of Arizona. In this harsh desert terrain they have been dying in record numbers.

The study, published last week…

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