Thread: Border Patrol sings deadly lullabies to illegals

Border Patrol sings deadly lullabies to illegals
Lyrics warn, 'There are many reasons to cross border, but none is worth your life'

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Posted: January 08, 2009
5:28 pm Eastern

© 2009 WorldNetDaily

The U.S. Border Patrol has come up with a unique way to deter illegals from coming into the U.S. – release "migration songs" in Mexico to warn aliens about the dangers of crossing the border.

Set to guitar and accordion music, songs such as "La Carta" (The Letter), "La Tumba" (The Tomb) and "El Funeral" (The Funeral) are part of the agency's new publicity campaign to keep illegals on their side, the Mexican news agency Efe reported.

"I took the road that so many take, the highway of the lonely, where the courageous one breaks down in tears, where you yourself are your own adversary," are lyrics to one sad song.

"La Tumba" tells a story about the plight of an illegal alien who tried to enter the U.S. and ends with his burial.

"There are many reasons to cross the border, (but) none is worth more than your life," the song concludes.

"El Funeral" is about three men who cheerfully attended school and played together. But when they decide to look for work in the U.S., they meet their deaths.

Another song says: "Night fell, silence came and 1,000 stars suffered with me, when suddenly, far away, life put me before a friend. He was sick, he was shivering and his eyes were full of fear. He begged me, 'Take me ... don't leave me to die like a dog.'"

Border Patrol spokesman Oscar Saldaña told Efe the agency is saturating border cities with the tunes.

"The songs were distributed by an ad agency in Mexican border cities like Reynosa and Matamoros, and after they were broadcast by commercial radio stations in the Mexican interior and in Latin America, which include them in their regular programming," he said. "We know that they have dubbed them 'migracorridos' (migration songs), but what we're interested in is that they carry the message to as many cities and towns as possible."

Saldaña said coyotes, or human traffickers, lie to illegals about risks of the journey, and aliens often meet their deaths in desolate areas.

"They tell them that the trek through the desert will last three hours, when in reality it's days," he said. "They don't provide them with enough water or clothing."

Saldaña claims the Border Patrol's publicity efforts have deterred many illegals from making the trek. Illegal alien deaths along the border dropped to 386 in 2008 from 492 in 2005.

"There continue to be many deaths," he said, "and we're trying to reduce the number through (publicity) campaigns and rescue operations."

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Border Patrol uses tunes to warn of crossing dangers: Migracorridos catchy but tragic
Times staff, wire report
Posted: 01/23/2009 12:00:00 AM MST

Migracorridos
Do you think 'migracorridos' will be successful in stopping potential illegal immigrants from crossing the border?
Yes
No
Border Patrol migra corrida: El Mas Grande Enemigo
Border Patrol migra corrida: En la Raya
Border Patrol migra corrida: Viente
Border Patrol migra corrida: El Respeto

SAN ANTONIO -- The song tells the all-too-familiar tale of two young men whose attempt to illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border ends tragically with death.

"El Mas Grande Enemigo," or "The Biggest Enemy," opens with toe-tapping accordions, but the lyrics about Abelardo and his cousin Rafael are anything but cheerful:

"After some hours/Abelardo opened his eyes/And in the middle of the cold night/Discovered his dead cousin at his side."

While Mexican drug traffickers long have had storytelling ballads known as narcocorridos to tell of their violent exploits, the Border Patrol has introduced migracorridos that sing of the danger immigrants face when crossing the border into the United States illegally.

What Mexican listeners don't know is that the migracorridos
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are the U.S. government's latest effort to persuade migrants to stay home.

The Border Patrol is taking ownership of the word "migra" -- a derogatory label traditionally used by undocumented border crossers to describe the U.S. agency -- as well as the popular folk song format to produce a five-song CD solely distributed to Mexican radio stations.

"We're as much law enforcers as we're rescuers and medical providers," said Wendi Lee, an agency spokeswoman in Washington. "The purpose of these songs is to educate and save lives."

Iliana Holguin, executive director of the Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services in El Paso, said she was surprised to hear that Border Patrol agents were financing, at least in part, a CD of migracorridos, but thought it was a good way to pass along the information.

"I think that a lot of times migrants don't know how dangerous the journey to the U.S. is, and any time they're warned of that I think is good," Holguin said. "It may very well potentially save lives. Music is a great medium to disseminate information."

For nearly a century, the Border Patrol's mission has focused on trying to halt border incursions, but over the past decade the agency has conducted a softer, lesser-known campaign to dissuade migrants from trying to cross in the first place.

The Border Safety Initiative created new units of medically trained agents, now totaling 212, who are spread along the Mexican border, assigned to search-and-rescue missions for stranded immigrants, particularly in the deadly Arizona desert.

The safety initiative campaign began a series of public service announcements dubbed "No Mas Cruces," which can mean both "No More Crossings" and "No More Crosses," meant to make people think twice before heading north.

The effort has paid off, Lee noted, pointing to the steady decline in crossing deaths from a record high of 492 in 2005 to 390 last year.

The migracorridos are the latest version of these ads, though you wouldn't know by looking at the CD jacket that it's paid for by the U.S. Border Patrol.

The funding source was kept secret because the agency feared losing Mexican listeners if they discovered "la migra" was behind the message.

The songs tell harrowing border-crossing stories, from Rafael and Abelardo's failed desert trek to a mother raped and beaten by a smuggler who then kills her 6-year-old daughter, and another of a migrant suffocating to death in an airtight tractor-trailer: "To cross the border/He put me in a trailer box/There I shared my suffering/With another 40 immigrants/I was never told/This was a trip to hell."

The point of the migracorridos is to take the awareness campaign to the street level, right into peoples' homes, said Jimmy Learned, president of Elevacion, the Hispanic ad agency with offices in Washington and New York that has spearheaded the Border Patrol's campaign for seven years.

The agency declined to disclose how much it's spending on the campaign, or the cost to produce and distribute the CD. Learned said he conducted research in Mexico before deciding to target 25 radio stations in six states with the highest count of U.S.-bound immigrants. Next up: Central American countries.

The stations initially played snippets of the songs as part of warning ads by the Mexican government, but the unique lyrics struck a chord with people who began asking stations for the full version, Learned said.

One station continued running the government spots during the day but then played the whole songs during a night corridos show.

The songs simply hit home with listeners keenly aware of risky border-crossing experiences, either personally or through friends and relatives, said José Gasca, manager of La Zeta station in Morelia, the capital of Michoacan.

In Zacatecas, another leading immigrant state, one station administrator wished Learned had sent him the migracorridos, saying his listeners would have reacted like those at Gasca's station.

"Are you kidding me? Everybody around here has family up north," said La Grupera Super G programming Director Juan Suarez, who has many relatives in Los Angeles. "We all know plenty of stories of people who tried to cross the border those who failed and those who triumphed."

But Gasca, who didn't know Elevacion works for the Border Patrol, said his listeners would have wanted nothing to do with the songs if they knew of the agency's involvement -- they'd feel as if the agency was after them in their own country.

The Border Patrol and Elevacion agreed, saying that's why they kept the agency's name out of it.

"A lot of people thought the Mexican government was behind it -- the last thing we wanted was to put 'paid by la migra,' " Learned said, noting two new migracorridos will be released in April. "What's most important is that if we've made people think twice, we've succeeded."

El Paso Times reporter Adriana M. Chavez contributed to this story. She may be reached at achavez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6117.

Border Patrol uses tunes to warn of crossing dangers

Online extra:


# Listen to the "migracorridos," or download them to your MP3 player.
# Poll: Do you think the "migracorridos" will be successful in stopping potential immigrants from attempting to cross the border?
http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_11533446