August 28, 1998
By Arthur H Rotstein
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
TUCSON, Ariz. — Traveling all along the U.S.-Mexico border, Mexican foreign affairs officers are focusing on preventing desert deaths and curbing violence.
The officials were touring the 2,000-mile border "to look for new alternatives," said Roberto Rodriguez Hernandez, Mexican consul in Nogales, Ariz. They visited Agua Prieta and Douglas on Tuesday.
Also on their agenda, he said, "is the safety of Mexican immigrants trying to cross the border." Undocumented immigrants — unfamiliar with rugged terrain along the border and intent on avoiding detection by U.S. Border Patrol agents — often end up being robbed, sometimes by the very people whom they've paid to guide them across into the United States.
Attacks on such immigrants were a principal reason why Mexican authorities created units of special plainclothes armed agents, known as Grupo Beta. The agents patrol border-city fences for those criminals who prey on northbound migrants or other easy victims.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Border Patrol also began its first national border safety conference in Nogales, focusing attention initially on finding new ways to get across to undocumented immigrants the dangers the desert heat and elements pose in their trying to cross the border illegally.
"The main reason for the visit is related to the violence," Rodriguez said. "There will be more dialogue and more effort to coordinate any kind of action to prevent fatalities and the increasing violence, both against the Mexican undocumented workers as well as the officers on both sides of the border."
Border Patrol Chief Gus De La Vina said Monday it was hoped that brainstorming at the three-day conference and unprecedented cooperation from Mexico would result in new ways to stop immigrants from dying in the deserts.
So far, more than 200 people have died from heat, drowning or other accidents, American officials said. Most of the deaths have occurred in Texas and California.
Rodriguez said because Mexicans are free to leave the country, his government will not act to keep them from doing so. "We just alert them of the risk they might face at the border on in their intent to cross into the United States," he said. That includes signs posted along the border warning of the sun, snakes and spiders, he said.
Rodriguez praised Border Patrol officers for their helpful and professional efforts for the past several years in trying to rescue immigrants at risk.
He also pointed out that many immigrants have been steered to more dangerous and less traditional crossing points, such as Sasabe, Sonoita and Lukeville, as Border Patrol officials step up surveillance in more common crossing areas.
"In Texas the same thing is happening. They are avoiding the main urban centers to avoid the agents from the Border Patrol," Rodriguez said.
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