Thread: Mexican Gov't Launches Ad Campaign to Dissuade Border-Crosse

Mexican Gov't Launches Ad Campaign to Dissuade Border-Crossers

May 19, 2005

Maria Leon

The Mexican consulate in Arizona on Wednesday launched an advertising campaign designed to warn prospective border-crossers of the many dangers awaiting them in the broiling Sonora Desert, with television spots to be broadcast on both sides of the frontier.

The campaign, entitled "Yes, it's true, the desert is dangerous," contains a series of ads that will be disseminated via TV, radio and in the print press in Arizona.

With pictures and testimonies from men, women and children portraying people about to die of thirst in the desert, the campaign seeks to dissuade immigrants from crossing the border during the most dangerous season of the year, when summer temperatures can easily get into triple digits.

U.S. Border Patrol statistics indicate that by the end of Fiscal Year 2004, more than 700,000 undocumented migrants had been detained along the Arizona border, a figure representing 52 percent of the total detentions along the entire U.S.-Mexico frontier during that time.

Since the U.S. government launched Operation Guardian more than a decade ago, more than 3,000 illegal migrants have died along the border. Last year, the Mexican consulate in Tucson registered 124 deaths among border-crossers and in 2003, the figure was 130.

"Unfortunately, the Mexican consulate in Tucson is the one that processes the highest number of deaths of Mexicans in this country," said the neighboring nation's consul here, Juan Manuel Calderon Jaimes.

In the face of criticism that a preventive campaign in Arizona or along the border is getting started very late, since the persons who are likely to try and cross the border are already waiting to do so rather than simply thinking about it at home, Calderon said, "Better late than never."

He emphasized that the campaign is designed to warn potential migrants, showing them the cruel reality of what they might face in the unforgiving desert.

"We want the father who's trying to cross with his wife and children to think about it more carefully and not risk it," the consul said.

He added that the consulate had registered a considerable increase in the number of minors who were being placed in the hands of alien smugglers to get them across the frontier.

The diplomatic mission is currently working with several municipalities in Mexican states that supply large numbers of immigrants - including Puebla, Oaxaca and Veracruz - to get them to broadcast the ads in their areas.

According to Calderon, many are the dangers that border-crossers run in the Arizona desert starting with the high temperatures, the poisonous animals - like snakes and scorpions - the bands of criminals who attack the relatively defenseless migrants and the intense vigilance of the Border Patrol.

That's not to mention the groups of U.S. ranchers who monitor the border, like the members of the so-called Minuteman Project.

"I've always said that the most dangerous animal is the 'coyote' with two legs," said Calderon, referring to the nickname by which the alien smugglers are known.

"The traffickers in undocumented persons aren't interested in the child or the woman who starts to feel sick. They abandon them just as quick (as they would a man). To them, all that matters is that they pay their money" to be guided over the frontier, he added.

The campaign comes at the point when the U.S. and Mexican governments are working out the details for implementing the second consecutive year of the so-called Voluntary Repatriation Program.

"The consulate in Tucson is ready for the beginning of repatriations," Calderon told EFE.

He added that in contrast to last year, this time the processing of undocumented immigrants who decide to participate in the program will be in the hands of the Mexican consulate in Nogales, while the Tucson mission will only assist .

Calderon added that he still had not been informed of the starting date for the program, but it is expected to be sometime in July. EFE
http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/ne ... olitics%2F

Details of Repatriation? You mean they can't just turn around and go home? Swell....well, at least there will be a record and we can count them.

Yes....and that was great to add the dangers of running into the vigilance of our Border Patrol. I'll bet that really scares 'em!!

lol

In seriousness.....every "itsy bitsy" step helps if its real....how do we know they mailed out the "warnings"....they're probably all still in the box in someone's storage closet...how did they know who to mail them to? They should drop from from the air like we do food in Africa.

Let them blow all over Mexico...maybe they'll pick them up, read 'em and stay home...safe and sound.

The Irony ...........many CANNOT READ {even their own language}

REPATRIATIONS? Yup, where's the PROOF? Haven't heard of anyone WILLINGLY asking to "go home!" Oh, unless they've murdered an AMERICAN.