Mexico offers GPS units to illegals to aid crossing journey into the US

[StrictlyRockers]

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_print.asp?art_id=35131&sid=11554548

Mexico offers satnav to illegals crossing into the US

Would-be illegal immigrants planning to cross the desert and enter the United States on foot are to be given hand-held satellite devices by the Mexican authorities to ensure they arrive safely.

Justin Stares

Monday, January 01, 2007

Would-be illegal immigrants planning to cross the desert and enter the United States on foot are to be given hand-held satellite devices by the Mexican authorities to ensure they arrive safely.
Those who get lost or fall sick during the dangerous four-day crossing will be able to activate the device, to alert frontier police on both sides of the border.

The satellite tracking service will require would-be illegals to register their intentions before setting off - a paradoxical move, given that secrecy is necessary for success - but Mexican authorities are predicting that about 200,000 devices will be handed out when the project is launched formally in the coming year.

"Our intention is to save lives," said Jaime Obregon, the coordinator for the state commission for migrants in Puebla, the Mexican state which is behind the project. "There are lots of people looking to cross and we are working with the US authorities to make sure they do not die on the way."

Between 20 and 30 migrants succumb to hellish temperatures and insect bites while trying to cross into Arizona every year. Heat exhaustion sometimes causes short-term memory loss, with trekkers wandering into the desert.

The route into Arizona, known as the Sasave Pass, is both the most common and the most dangerous way into the United States. According to Mexican state migrant authorities, up to 75,000 try the crossing every month, of whom 50,000 to 60,000 are caught by US border patrols and sent back.

I'm going to guess that the money spent on a border fence would be better spent on projects inside Mexico to actually make it a more livable country. That would do far more to solve the illegal immigration policy. Why can't politicians think about long-term solutions?

SR

[bluerum]

1. Oh. Please. Why don't they just buy them a bus ticket and fake papers? nt

[sam sarrha]

27. i was told by a mexican they bus them to the boarder, advertise on TV to go to US send money home

[bluerum]

28. OK - that makes sense. Might as well help them if they are going to

do it anyway.

[mike_c]

2. keep in mind that the U.S. gov't has consistently opposed...

...any attempts at government and economic reform in Mexico and Central America. U.S. corporate interests benefit mightily from those living conditions that create an impoverished work force, easy access to resources, etc. Poor people in the Americas are not poor by choice-- they're poor because someone powerful benefits from keeping them that way.

[Richard Steele]

3. ...

:popcorn:

[sanskritwarrior]

4. If true

then this is too much.

I wish I could go down to guatemala and arm the people there with GPS's and help them cross the Mexican border......Methinks the Mexicans would forcibly expel baby cats from their rectum.

[sandnsea]

5. Egads

If a government official is really doing this right now, I can't imagine anything more stupid. Maybe war is a natural state for man because it sure seems like everybody is doing everything they can to push their neck of the woods in that direction.

[LeftyMom]

6. How the heck do they plan to afford so many GPS units?

Anyhow, don't those units communicate locations with a US govt owned satellite system? Seems that makes about as much sense as calling the USGS and ordering some maps for the trip, in terms of keeping your intentions hidden from the authorities.

[don954]

13. It looks like they are planning on giving out EPIRB devices with GPS capability

I have 3 on my sailboat, they cost $300 for a cheap one and 1000$ for a good one.

[LeftyMom]

14. Even assuming they get a hell of a deal on them on volume, it seems like a heck of an expense

300,000 x $150 a pop is a heck of a lot of money to spend on people who are mostly going to wind up getting a free ride back to Mexico from the Border Patrol.

[krispos42]

15. I think GPSs are just receivers

Like an FM radio. They decode and correlate the timing signals from several GPS satellites and use the difference to calculate where on the globe you are.

I estimate that those Minutemen on the border might decided to "liberate" those GPS units before calling the Border Patrol. Expect to see lots of them on eBay.

[Skidmore]

17. That money couldn't be used to improve the lives of their

citizens there? I'm so sick of people making excuses for illegal immigration.

[MountainLaurel]

22. Getting subsidies from U.S. employers

Like Tyson who hire their own coyotes to bring workers across the border?

[EFerrari]

7. This is crap. Why don't we try not subverting their elections?

Because that would mean undocumented workers who come here to try to feed their hunger might not come here.

[LeftyMom]

9. What are you, some kinda commie?

We're the USofMotherfuckin'A- We get to screw with anybody else's elections we want! In the name of Democracy, no less!

[EFerrari]

11. Um, yes?

lol

:)

[sanskritwarrior]

10. WOW

n/t

[AzDar]

8. Takes a lot to truly astonish me this days, but this qualifies. Sounds

almost like a calculated invasion.
Perhaps the Mexican State Authorities would better serve their citizens by working to improve their socio-economic standing at home, rather than conspiring to break the laws of the U.S.:wow:

[nebenaube]

12. sweet...

so now that they have those transponders, we can track them as they come in... wtf?

Are we going to draft them or what?

[ellisonz]

16. This Is FALSE, I REPEAT, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE.

Just another RW scare tactic because this is the only issue they think they have left.

Mexico considers giving GPS locators to border crossers
Chris Hawley and Daniel González
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 5, 2007 01:15 PM
PUEBLA, Mexico – A Mexican state on Friday denied reports that it plans to distribute satellite tracking devices to migrants crossing the Arizona desert.

The state of Puebla said one of its employees was studying the idea as a "personal project," but that there were no plans to launch such a program. Rumors about the satellite-tracking program have spread like wildfire through U.S. Internet sites and radio stations ever since it was reported by a British newspaper on Sunday. U.S. Border Patrol officials have concerns about the proposal.

"It's just a study, nothing more," said Ismael Ríos, a spokesman for the Puebla state government. He denied reports that the state would distribute 200,000 small, satellite-based emergency beacons this year.

In December, an assistant director of the State Commission for Services to the Pueblan Migrant, Jaime Obregón, told Mexico City´s Reforma newspaper that he was studying the satellite tracking idea and would present a report to the national association of state migration offices in March.The devices could be activated by migrants to summon help if they get lost or sick in the Arizona desert, he was quoted as saying.

But José Luis Salas Velázquez, legal affairs director of the commission, called Obregón´s study hypothetical.

"This study is a personal project of his," Salas Velázquez told the Republic. "It´s not an official project of the government, and there are no plans or budget for implementing it."

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0105MigrantLocator05-ON.html

[fishwax]

20. Thanks for the link, ellisonz

I didn't buy the story either, but you posted the link before I found it. Good find. :hi:

[ellisonz]

21. I was flipping channels...

and even though he's a demagogue, Lou Dobbs ran this story unfailingly without correction. It's just not true...that's like saying Virgil T. Goode dictates the US policy on religious tests for offices. Give me a break MSM.

:hi:

[fishwax]

26. sounds like our Lou

he's nothing if not a sucker for an anti-immigration story. ;)

[judaspriestess]

18. call Pat Buchanan a crack pot

but I deal with alot of Hispanic clientele and many of them have the mentality that Southern US is Mexico's so its not a big deal that they are living on Mexico's land. Propaganda from their corrupt ass government. This is just another example.

[Critters2]

24. I've read that on DU, too nt

[fishwax]

19. does this smell bogus to anyone else?

I guess I don't buy it.

[LeftyMom]

23. Yep. The math just doesn't work.

The Mexican govt does not have the cash or the interest to shell out a couple hundred bucks on a migrant who's probably just going to wind up donating their GPS unit to la migra anyhow.

[fishwax]

25. it would be tens of millions, i'm sure

and, as you say, most of them would wind up donated.

ellisonz found a link saying it was just a theoretical project mentioned by some official in Puebla ... http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0105MigrantLocator05-ON.html

[bluerum]

29. Of course. It seems very unlikely. This is RW hogwash. But it plays

well with the minutemen crowd and their ilk.

Besides - we need to build a case for invading Mexico. Chavez would really crap his pants if we had combat troops on Mexico's southern border!