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WASHINGTON (AFP) - The number of deaths among would-be immigrants along the US-Mexico border has doubled over the past decade, according to a US Congress report.

Most of the increase in fatalities occurred along Mexico's border with the southwest state of Arizona, according to theGovernment Accountability Office, Congress's investigative arm.

The GAO estimated that in 1995, 266 people died trying to cross into the United States, while 427 died last year.

The report found that the increase occurred even though there was not a corresponding rise in attempts to illegally enter the United States, and called for additional research to explain the troubling trend.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who requested the report, on Thursday introduced the Border Death Reduction Act to help reduce the number of deaths.

"Every eighteen and a half hours, someone dies trying to cross the border between the United States and Mexico," he said, calling the GAO findings "sobering, shocking, and, I strongly believe, a cause for action."

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