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BRIEF: The domestic war on immigrants, instituted by the Department of Homeland Security's "Operation Liberty Shield," is contributing to the escalating deaths along the Texas border, immigrant rights advocates say. The Department of Homeland Security is the largest law enforcement agency of the United States, and is divided into two agencies which provide immigration services and border enforcement. The Border and Transportation Security (BTS) department is solely responsible for border security and enforcement of immigration laws. This week, five undocumented Guatemalan immigrants burned to death in a South Texas field after it was set ablaze for continued harvesting of sugar cane. The only survivor is an unidentified man who remains in critical condition in a burn unit. A U.S. citizen, Benjamin Mata, was denied re-entry at the Brownsville border because he forgot his I.D. at home. He later drowned while attempting to cross the river, leaving behind a wife and daughter. Nathan Selzer with Casa de Proyecto Libertad, a human rights and border monitoring project overseeing the South Texas border, said the Department of Homeland Security's "Operation Liberty Shield" is raising fears, contributing to increased border deaths and - more alarming - is moving toward border militarization northward to cities who've never experienced national security enforcement. Casa de Proyecto Libertad's main concern is that as paramilitary forces continue hunting down human beings for [the non-violent, victimless crime of] crossing the border by imposing militarized conditions on cities, society will sanction these activities, only leading to further human rights abuses. Before the September 11 attacks, enhanced border enforcement strategies had already claimed the lives of over 2,200 immigrants between 1994 and 2001. Anna Nunez, KPFT News, Houston. E-mail Anna Nunez at latinovoiceskpft@aol.com . This story was broadcast on March 28, 2003.