Public Safety

Activists Protest Drownings In All American Canal

By Amy Isackson / Border Reporter

Published November 17, 2009 at 12:55 PM PST

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

The All American Canal, the main water conduit from the Colorado River into the Imperial Dam, Imperial Valley, 6 August 2009.

Activists Protest Drownings In All American Canal

Immigrants rights activists dove into the All American Canal Tuesday to protest migrant drownings. Activists strung buoys across the canal to honor the dead and to ask for new safety measures.

Immigrants rights activists dove into the All American Canal Tuesday to protest migrant drownings. Activists strung buoys across the canal to honor the dead and to ask for new safety measures.

Immigrants rights activists jumped into the canal east of El Centro in an act of civil disobedience.

They strung a cable with 17 buoys attached to it across the canal. It is the kind of cable they say people can use to pull themselves to safety.

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Activist John Carlos Frey says he risked arrest to pressure Imperial water officials.

"Fifteen months later, 17 drownings later, our concern is that the board has not added one single safety feature," he says.

Fifteen months ago, Imperial Irrigation District officials agreed a new cement lined stretch of the canal must be made safer. But officials still can't say when they will install safety features.

The canal runs along the U.S.-Mexico border, from Yuma to just east of El Centro, and carries water to Imperial Valley and San Diego.

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Amy Isackson

Amy Isackson was the border reporter at KPBS from 2004 to 2011. She covered breaking news and feature stories on California-Mexico border issues and immigration, for local and national broadcast. Amy got her start in public radio by pitching a series of stories about rural New Zealand - horse dentistry and sheep sheering - to Radio New Zealand's "Country Life" program. She then worked with Peabody Award-winning radio producers Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, to help create the Sonic Memorial, a series of stories on the World Trade Center before, during and after 9/11. Amy's work has been recognized with awards from the Associated Press Television-Radio Association of California and Nevada, the California Chicano News Media Association, and the San Diego Press Club. She won the Sol Price Prize for Responsible Journalism in 2009 from the Society of Professional Journalists for her story about high school students smuggling people and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. Prior to venturing into the wonderful world of public radio, Amy worked for Yahoo! Inc. for nearly five years as an editorial surfer, associate producer and broadcast communications manager. She majored in Latin American History at Williams College. She grew up in San Diego and made frequent trips south of the border.

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