At the Side Door Cafe in Falfurrias, Texas, body counts enter conversations as naturally as the price of feed, or the cost of repairing torn fences. "I removed 11 bodies last year from my ranch, 12 the year before," said prominent local landowner Presnall Cage. "I found four so far this year." In total, the Border Patrol recorded 453 border deaths last year and a GAO report said recorded border deaths have doubled since 1995. It also said the Border Patrol may be producing an undercount. No one knows, of course, how many die without leaving recoverable remains.

Besides those who die crossing the border, a far greater number are facing uncertain fates from the United States immigration system. Entire families, including those with small children, are held at the T. Don Hutto detention facility, a private Texas prison that was intended to be closed for lack of occupancy until the site was revived as a result of new immigration enforcement policies. In April, the U.S. denied a UN human rights official access to inspect this facility and another jail in New Jersey.

Others find themselves at the mercy of a Kafkaesque immigration system, such as Yaderlin Jimenez, whose husband has been missing since his unit was attacked in Iraq on May 12. Even after the Department of Homeland security dropped deportation proceedings against her after he was declared MIA, she remains in legal limbo. She has reason to fear: Just a few months after an Army soldier died in Iraq and was buried with full military honors, his father was deported as an undocumented immigrant. Like a vast number of others, Yaderlin is left with no legal remedy, and only the hope the government will do something decent

They Die in South Texas

With GI Husband Missing in Iraq, Wife Faces Legal Limbo

Hoping the "Government Will do Something Decent"

U.S. Blocks Oversight of Prisons With Immigrant Families

Gaza has fallen to Hamas. Abbas' Fatah is on the run. Unless a United Nations force steps in, a sliver of territory with a population of 1.4 million, a short drive from Tel Aviv, will become a dagger aimed at Israel's heart and perhaps even an Al Qaeda staging ground. A humanitarian crisis of horrific proportions is a near-certainty.

Whose fault is it? The Palestinians', of course. But hardly theirs alone. The U.S. and Israel had a decisive contribution to this failure. The Americans, in their lack of understanding of the processes of Islamization in the territories, pressured the Palestinians to hold democratic elections and brought Hamas to power with their own hands. Even then, we could have welcomed Hamas's participation in the election as a sign that Hamas was implicitly accepting the Oslo framework (which it was), insisted on the complete cessation of violence, and then used carrots and sticks to encourage the Hamas-run Palestinian Authority to mend its ways. But we offered no carrots, just sticks.

What should the international community do now? We can simply say "to hell with them" and watch Gaza become Hamastan. Or we can get an international force in Gaza to stop the blood-letting, ensure that humanitarian needs are met, and adopt the policy of distinguishing between Palestinians ready to live in peace with Israel, whatever their affiliations, and those who aren't

Israel Suddenly Generous With Help for Abbas, Fatah

Bush Endorses Abbas as "President of all Palestinians"

Hamas Fears Isolation in Gaza
Days After Takeover, Gaza in Aid Crisis

After Hamas Takes Gaza, Israel Decides Fatah Not so Bad, After All
We Can Thank Ourselves for Hamas in Gaza

UN Undermining Palestinian State, Charges Outgoing UN Mideast Envoy

Denied Legitimacy After Winning Elections, Hamas Takes it by Force