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Anti-smuggling campaign gets visual aid – from smuggler

Gregory Alan Gross
UNION-TRIBUNE BREAKING NEWS TEAM

1:31 p.m. August 18, 2005
SAN DIEGO – The U.S. and Mexican governments are mounting an ad campaign in Mexico against smuggling women and children across the border inside potentially deadly hidden compartments in trucks and cars.
Migrant smugglers increasingly resort to bizarre tricks to stash illegal immigrants in their "load cars" in hopes of driving through border crossings and escaping the notice of inspectors, said Adele Fasano, director of the U.S. Customs field office in San Diego.

U.S. border inspectors typically find 30 to 40 hidden compartments a month at the San Ysidro port of entry alone, she said at a press conference at the San Ysidro port of entry.

As if to underscore Fasano's announcement, nearby border inspectors made a discovery inside the trunk of a late-model Ford Crown Victoria: Seven men and women, stacked on top of one another like luggage.

Uncomfortable, to be sure, but not as dangerous as many of the more hidden compartments that smugglers now use.

"Under the program we're announcing today, this would not be considered an unsafe compartment," said Customs official Joseph Misenhelter, noting that modern cars, like this Ford, have emergency releases inside the trunk. "They can get themselves out."

Not so in hidden compartments.

"Temperatures in these hidden compartments can reach over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with a very limited supply of oxygen and exposure to noxious fumes such as carbon monoxide," Fasano said.

PREVIOUS ATTEMPTS
Over the years, women and small children have been found sewn into driver seats, bolted under engine compartments and sealed inside dashboards by migrant smugglers charging $2,000 to $3,000 per person, Fasano said.

"They will go to any lengths," Fasano said. "They've shown us that. "

Children being smuggled in compartments often don't know the hazards and horrors that await them. Capt. Jerry Valladolid of the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department described having to cut out one child hidden inside a vehicle's gas tank – with gasoline still inside it.

"He was breathing gasoline fumes. He was soaked through and through with gasoline," said Valladolid. "If we hadn't found him, he would have been dead before he got to his destination."

So far, no one has died in one of these compartments, but federal officials fear it's inevitiable.

"I believe it is just a matter of time before we agonize over the tragic loss of a small child," Fasano said.

TV CAMPAIGN SPOTS
In hopes of preventing that, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in conjunction with the Border Patrol and the Spanish-language network Univision, has produced a half-dozen public-service radio and TV announcements. The messages will be broadcast by San Diego radio stations and made available to Mexican stations. They urge Mexican families not to entrust their loved ones to migrant smugglers.

One such "spot" shows a mother pounding on the trunk of a car when her child begins to have trouble breathing. Another depicts a "coyote" reassuring a mother that her son will be safe with him.

"I'm a professional," the smuggler says. "He's in very good hands."

The next shot is of a trunk lid being closed, with the image dissolving into a coffin being closed.