Posted on 05/18/2003 8:29:28 AM PDT by Sweet_Sunflower29
Mexico is committed to reducing migrant deaths and improving security on the border, but the flow of illegal immigrants will continue so long as there is no organized and legal way to seek temporary work in the United States, Mexico's deputy foreign minister said Saturday.
Geronimo Gutierrez toured the border Friday and Saturday on behalf of Mexico's President Vicente Fox.
"Having mechanisms for migration that are legal, secure and orderly creates the security that is so much a concern to the United States," Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez also issued a warning to "coyotes," people smugglers, who, he said, bear the greatest blame for the border's annual harvest of death.
"It is high priority of President Fox to put an end to these bands of people traffickers who lie to the migrants, lead them into the desert, then abandon them," he said. "They will be pursued; they will be prosecuted."
Gutierrez spoke at a press conference here after a two-day tour of the Arizona-Sonora border. He said border consulates will redouble their campaign to warn migrants of the dangers they face.
But he repeated his government's position that it can do nothing to stop its citizens from traveling freely.
About 350 Mexican immigrants die every year trying to cross the border.
According to the U.S. Border Patrol, at least 145 people died trying to enter the United States through Arizona last year, although an Arizona Daily Star analysis of law enforcement, medical examiner, and Mexican Consulate records found more than 160 deaths.
Fox probably realized that if he tried to buck the system there too hard, his lifespan would be measured in hours, or a few days, at best.
Look who's talking. You forgot to add you Nazi terms.
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