Border safety effort announced

Caller-Times ^ | May 7, 2004 | Quincy C. Collins

[SwinneySwitch]

Campaign's goal is to prevent tragedies like Victoria deaths.

FALFURRIAS - U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert C. Bonner and Mexican immigration officials announced on Thursday an increased effort to deter illegal immigration and apprehend human smugglers.

The Border Safety Initiative, "No Mas Cruces en la Frontera" or "No More Crosses on the Border," targets death season, May through October, which is when 80 percent of crossing deaths occur.

"We're dedicated to this," said Gus De La Vina, the chief of the U.S. Border Patrol. "We have to keep trying and trying to keep people from dying."

The campaign will include Spanish-language television and radio ads that target potential undocumented immigrants and their families in Central America and central and southern Mexico.

U .S. Customs and Border Protection officials estimate that 75 percent of undocumented immigrants originate from those regions. The announcements also will air in some U.S. Southwestern cities.

The announcement comes almost one year after 19 undocumented immigrants suffocated to death while being smuggled in a tractor-trailer discovered at a truck stop near Victoria.

"Before Victoria, alien smuggling was viewed as a regional problem," Bonner said. "Now we realize that people are senselessly dying when we fail to protect our borders."

Bonner said the agency is working with Mexican immigration officials to transport undocumented immigrants to the interior of Mexico rather than to Mexican border towns where human smugglers operate.

The Border Safety Initiative also includes staff and training for border patrol stations and increased training for Mexican fire and law enforcement personnel in search and rescue techniques.

According to U.S. Border Patrol and Customs data, 372 people have been rescued along the border this year and 83 people have died. Last year, 1,221 people were rescued and 340 undocumented immigrants died.

Contact Quincy C. Collins at 886-3792 or collinsq@caller.com.

[SwinneySwitch]

"Now we realize that people are senselessly dying when we fail to protect our borders."

In more ways than one!

[gubamyster]

ping

[Missouri]

"We're dedicated to this," said Gus De La Vina, the chief of the U.S. Border Patrol.

I'll believe it when I see it.

[Missouri]

"We're dedicated to this," said Gus De La Vina, the chief of the U.S. Border Patrol.

I'll believe it when I see it.

[DumpsterDiver]

"We have to keep trying and trying
to keep people from dying."

Quick, somebody set that to music.

[novacation]

"340 undocumented immigrants (illegal alien invaders) died." And how many Americans died at the hands of illegals?How many cops die every year at the hands of "people who do the jobs Americans don't want to do"?

[Viking2002]

And next, in an attempt to bail out the Great Lakes quicker, they'll switch from a teaspoon to a tablespoon.....

[upchuck]

This is such a joke. I really wish I could get a firm, truthful answer to this question: Why have we let, and continue to let, criminal aliens invade our country from Mexico?

Why are the powers that be blinded to the damage being done by these criminals?

I am assuming if President Bush knew about the mess these folks are creating in this country that he'd do something about it. Perhaps I am naive? :)

[henderson field]

25% of the inmates of U.S. prisons are foreign-born. No statistics on the recently-foreign.

[taxed2death]

The "powers that be"...GWB...are NOT blinded. George know EXACTLY what's going on!

George is being paid off by lobbyists in the Agri businesses and food industry businesses because they need people they can pay 15 dollars a day to pick strawberries and lettuce and wash dishes and bus tables. They constantly whine that "if we don't get these migrant workers to pick our produce, a head of lettuce will cost $6.00" What they fail to realize is that they're completely busted on this line of crap. That head of lettuce ALREADY cost the taxpayer $60.00, due to all the graft of social services that illegals siphon off of the US taxpayers back.
George thinks that by listening to Karl Rove chirping in his ear, that by pandering to hispanics, he'll get more votes.
The Dum-a-crats are just as dumb. They think that illegals will be lining up at the ballot boxes to vote Dum-a-crap.
So, the two party cartel just sits back and practices "selective law enforcement"......blabbing on and on about the phoney War on Terror, while thousands stream across both borders every 24 hours.
Once again, it's the US taxpayer who bears the brunt of this crap brought to us by spineless polititians.

[Amerigomag]

Go figure.

The US public enthusiastically wants immigration regulated and the response from Bush and Fox is a public service add campaign to advise illegal immigrants as to how to survive while crossing the desert plus an improvement in boarder health care to better secure the survival of these trespassers.

I may not lose much sleep on this issue if Bush is defeated in November. The situation couldn't get much worse under any other president.

Right now our boarders are wide open, Fox is a purveyor to illegal emigration, Bush is encouraging illegal immigration through his policy proposals and now Bush and Fox are spending more US taxpayer monies to inform illegals how to survive the crossing and setting up better public services in the area to assist them.

[janetgreen]

I may not lose much sleep on this issue if Bush is defeated in November. The situation couldn't get much worse under any other president.

I've come to the same conclusion - the illegal alien situation couldn't get any worse. The best thing we can do is to keep pestering our so-called "representatives" and "senators" on a daily basis, screaming about the downside of illegal immigration so much that they are forced to listen. The possibility of losing the next election is the only thing that most of them worry about.

[norton]

"We're dedicated to this," said Gus De La Vina, the chief of the U.S. Border Patrol. "We have to keep trying and trying to keep people from dying.""

Dear Sir:
The job of the Border Patrol is to protect our borders [hence the name].
Your job is NOT to keep those who are not supposed to be on this side of the border from dying - their own motherland was responsible for that and apparently did not consider the task worthwhile.