Thread: Tucson paper also supports map distribution

Published: 01.27.2006

Border maps point to immigration conflict
The Star's view: The maps of water stations and rescue beacons in the desert were meant to warn, not guide.
A perfect illustration of the divisive nature of illegal immigration is the matter of the maps that humanitarian groups on both sides of the border had planned to give illegal entrants planniong to cross the line.
As a story in Wednesday's Star pointed out, the Mexican and American humanitarian groups saw the maps that provided warnings and safety information as humane, life-saving measures.
Anti-immigrant groups said the maps would only encourage illegal immigration.
But Mexico announced on Thursday that it will suspend distribution of the maps to migrants planning to cross illegally into the United States.
The Mexican government maintains the decision was not made because of American pressure. However, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the United States opposed the plan "in the strongest terms," according to an Associated Press story.
A spokesman for the Mexican human rights group said it ditched the maps because it believed the maps showed anti-immigrant groups where crossers would likely gather.
Reporter Lourdes Medrano wrote in Wednesday's Star that Humane Borders had teamed with the Human Rights Commission of Mexico to provide the maps — not as travel guides but as warnings to entrants planning to cross illegally into the United States.
The maps warned in Spanish, "Don't Go!" They also advised would-be crossers that the trip is not worth the potential loss of life and that water is scarce. The thousands of maps also would have pointed entrants to water tanks and rescue beacons.
The plans to provide maps were immediately attacked as encouraging illegal entry and furthering the dangerous crossings that kill hundreds every year all along the Mexican border.
The issue rages here because in recent years, Arizona has become the place where hundreds die annually trying to illegally enter the country.
Yet as one group saw its work as helping to end the needless march of death in the deserts, another saw the legal infractions committed by the border crossers.
"Humane Borders is aiding and abetting, there's no question in my mind," said Jim Nixon on Wednesday, a member of the Tucson group Arizonans for Immigration Control.
The issue is divisive even within the Republican Party. Conservative Bay Buchanan, sister of television pundit Pat Buchanan, was in Tucson on Jan. 20, along with Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo.
The two were promoting a plan to cut off illegal immigration at the border and to deny any form of guest-worker program to accommodate those who would come across legally.
In Congress, proposed solutions run the gamut from shutting down the borders to more complex proposals that would incorporate enforcement as well as a guest-worker program.
And on Thursday, Star columnist Ernesto Portillo reported that a disturbing piece of legislation in Congress has gone largely unnoticed. Under the bill, humanitarian aid for illegal crossers could be criminalized.
In looking at this from opposite sides of the issue, the only agreement is that there is a problem.
Yet providing maps seemed to be a preventive measure because it clearly planned to warn that the journey is potentially deadly. And it had lifesaving information on how to get help.
When Congress goes back to work next week, finding a comprehensive solution to illegal entry needs immediate attention.
In the meantime, humanitarians should be allowed to warn illegal entrants that the border is not safe and offer the information to help these human beings stay alive.

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/printDS/113166

I come down on the side of those who argue that this is aiding and abetting illegal entry.

RR