Summer a deadly time along U.S.-Mexico borderIt is also unclear exactly why deaths are increasing in the McAllen Sector. Overall along the entire 2,000-mile border, deaths are on par with previous years.
Among the possibilities is that, due to increased Border Patrol pressure in Arizona and other parts of the border, smugglers are looking to the Rio Grande Valley just as it gets hot.
"It has already hit 104 (degrees)," said Daniel Doty, a spokesman for the patrol's McAllen Sector.