April 3, 2009

The Honorable David Obey The Honorable Jerry Lewis

Chairman Ranking Member
House Appropriations Committee House Appropriations Committee
H-218 U.S. Capitol 1016 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515 Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Chairman Obey and Ranking Member Lewis:

I am requesting funding for Binational Migration Institute in Fiscal Year 2010. The entity to
receive funding for this project is University of Arizona, located at 1401 East University
Boulevard, Tucson, AZ, 85721. The funding would be used for:

This project will create a new model for standardizing the counting, processing,
identification, and handling of UBC decedents across the U.S. border with Mexico and will
create a handbook for expert training of coroners and medical examiners who continue to
struggle with this unprecedented problem. BMI will also produce between 5-10 training
workshops for border coroners and medical examiners. The U.S. is experiencing a
humanitarian crisis of unauthorized border crossers (UBCs) suffering and dying in the
southwestern deserts while trying to enter the U.S. from Mexico. Policymakers and
government agencies are not accurately counting, processing, or identifying these men,
women, and children. These entities are unable to accurately measure the efficacy of
various government strategies designed to reduce the number of such deaths. The
Binational Migration Institute (BMI) leads the way for creating reliable information about
these deaths across the entire U.S.-Mexico border which facilitates better understand of the
relationship between U.S. immigration control policies and UBC deaths.

I certify that neither I nor my spouse has any financial interest in this project.

Sincerely,

 Raúl M. Grijalva
Member of Congress