Mexico to give border crossers survival kits

[AZ]

Mexico to give border crossers survival kits
Critics say packages of medicine and food encourage illegal entry.
May 16, 2001

By SAM QUINONES
For the Register


MEXICO CITY - If it can't stop emigration to the United States, the Mexican government thinks at least its people shouldn't die in the process.

So starting next month, the government will distribute up to 200,000 survival kits to people planning to head north.

The kits will contain medicine and information to prepare emigrants for what they face on the trip, which usually includes a trek through the remote deserts and mountains of Arizona or California because of increased U.S. border security.

The packets will include anti-diarrheal medicine, adhesive bandages, aspirin, acetaminophen, medicine for snake and scorpion bites, powder to prevent dehydration, water, salt, dry meat, cans of tuna and granola.

Women will receive 25 birth-control pills, men 25 condoms. AIDS is a small but growing problem in rural Mexico. It is spread mostly by men who contract the virus in the United States, then infect women back home.

The program will train hundreds of volunteers - people who already make a yearly trek north - in first aid and emergency health care. The volunteers will be given surgery soap, sutures for sewing wounds, thermometers, gauze, cotton and other implements to attend to migrants' medical problems.

The $2 million program, known as "Vete Sano, Regresa Sano" (Leave Healthy, Return Healthy), will begin June 15. It is funded by the Mexican government, which also is seeking funding from the California Endowment, a Woodland Hills-based health foundation. The endowment has set aside $50 million for programs that improve the health of California farm workers, part of that to be used in conjunction with the Mexican government.

"The concept is fascinating and consistent with the kind of commitment this (money) would support," said Dr. Robert Ross, California Endowment president and a former San Diego County health director. "We are very committed to working with Mexican public-health officials."

Officials from the endowment and the Mexican government met Tuesday in San Diego. Even without the endowment's support, the program will proceed but on a smaller scale, Mexican officials said. Training for volunteers is already under way.

Rather than save lives, however, critics said the program will encourage illegal immigration.

"Why don't they stop them from coming?" asked Barbara Coe of Huntington Beach, chairwoman of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform. "It's aiding and abetting lawbreakers."

Among other things, the program will include tips on maintaining self-esteem and on Asian meditation techniques to combat depression, stress and anxiety in a country they have entered illegally and without speaking the language.

"Those who've gone to the U.S. have told us of their experiences. This is what they've told us they need," said Dr. Angel Flores, chief of community action for the Mexican Institute of Social Security, which has a network of 3,000 rural health workers who will distribute the kits.

Last year, at least 490 Mexicans died crossing the 1,952-mile border, according to the Mexican government. So far this year, emigrants crossing the border have been dying at a rate of about one a day, though officials say the toll rises in the summer.

Gloria Chavez, spokeswoman for the San Diego sector of the U.S. Border Patrol, said that, while she was not familiar with the survival-kit plan, it sounds like a good idea. Since 1998, she said, U.S. Border Patrol agents have carried energy drinks, blankets and other emergency supplies to treat such ailments as dehydration and hypothermia among the border crossers.

"Our mission is to prevent deaths," Chavez said.

The packets and health workshops are to be presented to 369 of Mexico's poorest municipalities, mostly in Oaxaca, Michoacan, Zacatecas and Jalisco states.

A committee of doctors and health workers formed by the government's newly established Office for Mexicans Abroad came up with the idea. Director Juan Hernandez acknowledged the kit might appear to encourage illegal immigration and thus be controversial.

"We're not going to close our eyes," he said. "We have individuals with needs, and they are dying at the border."

The survival kits have never been tried before. The biggest obstacle to their success could be the people they're intended to help.

"This could help avoid many deaths. But if you ask emigrants, 70 percent of them don't see any risks," said Jorge Santibanez, president of El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, a state university in Tijuana, who helped design the program. "They're not conscious of the risks. So if the kit isn't accompanied with education on how to use it and why it's necessary, it won't be used."

For many years, the Mexican government ignored the emigrants' plight. Emigrants complained of being ripped off by police when they returned home and treated like traitors by the government for leaving to make a living in the United States.

The survival packets are the bluntest sign yet of a change in attitude under the administration of President Vicente Fox.

"It reflects a reality that has rarely been reflected officially," Santibanez said. "Mexico avoided actions that could appear to be helping migrants leave. There was a kind of self-censorship: What will the U.S. say if we look like we're helping them leave? This self-censorship has disappeared. This is very positive."

Register staff writer John Gittelsohn contributed to this report.


http://www.ocregister.com/news/16emigratecci4.shtml

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[IZZY]

Facinating!

We could learn a bit on how to assemble our south west survival kits from these folk. Although one thing I am glad I did not see was a firearm...sure hate to see it used on my fellow legal Citizens.

I think it is great that this come to light and President Fox will ultimatly force Congress to impose tougher rules on immigration. After all this is a planed policy, and now the evidence is open for all to see...sometimes it has to get worse before it gets better.

[C.R.Sam]

Invasion

[George Hill]

Why close it off? We should just name President Fox the governor of the 51st State.

[Kharn]

South-west survival kit: the pile of partially used Mexican survival kits you picked up after you ran the Mexicans off your land.

Kharn

[Ledbetter]

All they forgot were the wire cutters.

[Chaingun]

What are 25 birth control pills suppose to do and which perticular pill was selected. This is a perscription item, won't the ladies be breaking drug trafficking laws, a felony if apprehended?

[SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI]

Kharn, you've got it exactly right. If our government has abandoned their responsibility for border security, those of us who live along the border will just have to do it ourselves. Of course we'll have to relieve them of all that contraband they were obviously trying to smuggle into our country...

[beemerb]

Those who've gone to the U.S. have told us of their experiences. This is what they've told us they need," said Dr.
Angel Flores, chief of community action for the Mexican Institute of Social Security, which has a network of 3,000
rural health workers who will distribute the kits.

Guilty of conspiricy to promote criminal acts???A warrent for the arrest of and extradition to the US for trial.

What are 25 birth control pills suppose to do and which perticular pill was selected. This is a perscription item, won't the ladies be breaking drug trafficking laws, a felony if apprehended?

You put one of the pills in one of the condoms, twirl it over your head, and throw it. This makes up for the lack of firearms in the kit.

[longeyes]

If you are counting on the governments of either the U.S. or Mexico to stop illegal immigration, forget it. Mexico wants to export its "surplus" population and American business interests want cheap labor. President Bush is as much in favor of what's going as President Fox. When greed converges with ethnically-based political agendas you have a powerful momentum that is likely to continue until something equally powerful opposes it (serious economic dislocation?). I see no one in this country willing to speak out in a public forum any more about the downside of illegal immigration. The term "illegal immigration" has all but been banned in the press. Fox calls them "migrants" and my local newspaper (L.A. Times) has adopted his self-serving jargon. The likelihood is that the next mayor of Los Angeles will be a man who has repeatedly pressed to obliterate the distinction between legal and illegal residency, opposing widely-supported public initiatives, and who launched his political career as head of an organization dedicated to the "reconquista" of the Southwest by Mexican descendats (MEChA). You will see any coverage in the press, print or television, about any of this. A multi-cultural society is a plus, in my opinion, and we are definitely a land of immigrants, but if we value law and the Anglo-American roots of our own Constitution, we might want to pay more attention to what is underway.

[longeyes]

Obviously meant to say: "You will NOT see any coverage in the press, print or television, about any of this."

[moa]

Longeyes, can you define a "multi-cultural society", and how it is a "plus"?

And, if possible, can you give any examples of great nations or empires that where created and maintained that were/are multi-cultural based on your definition?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[longeyes]

Moa,

By multi-cultural I mean societies of racial, ethnic, and religious diversity. Having said that it is apparent that certain basic social and philosophic tenets must be shared and honored by that culture's citizens if there is to be a union.

Examples? How about the United States of America, Switzerland, the Roman Empire, to cite three?

My concern is that we lose sight of the spiritual and philosphical "glue," embodied not only in our Constitution but in common law and many of our social practices, that makes our nation viable and enduring. Immigrants have, heretofore, adopted these basic principles. The threat today is a Balkanization of this culture.

[longeyes]

Moa,

You asked how multi-culturalism could be a plus. I think the more imagination that can be brought to life's challenges the better. It's another variation of "competition." Certainly, America's strength has been unity in diversity, wouldn't you agree?

[Russ]

George,

Why the 51st state? They already have Kalifornia. Texas is next.

Russ

[LoneStranger]

What is needed is for Presidents Fox and Bush to be told that if the Mexican Govt. wants to unload its unwanted peasants north of the border then U.S. citizens want the Mexican Govt. to adopt the U.S. Constitution in its entirety. It seems obvious that the U.S. Constitution is a superior document to the present Mexican Constitution, or they would not be trying to unload their peasants.
Would imagine that this concept will cause major flames if brought before the Mexican people.

[longeyes]

The only Presidential candidate to raise the topic of illegal immigration as a problem was Buchanan, and we know how well he did. Bush has jumped on the Vincente Fox express as far as I can tell. He likes that cheap Mexican labor and he's hoping his party can grab a lot of Latino votes, of whatever stripe, by '04. So don't expect any tough border action from him. The Dems already have been a major beneficiary of the population influx. While the media quibbles about disenfranchised voters in Florida, they should be worrying about illegally enfranchised voters elsewhere in the U.S. Figure that Gore got at least a million, maybe two million illegal votes last year out of the ten million (or more) illegals now in this country, nullifying his purported win in the popular vote. Meanwhile, a lot of Democratic special interests benefit from illegal immigration: labor unions, rich liberals who need domestic work of all kinds, the social service establishment, and schools. Don't look to those blocs to press for curbs on illegal immigration.

If Bush were the tough Texan he'd like people to think he is he'd be, for starters, putting tariffs on Mexican imports to pay for the humonguous cost of providing social services for illegals in this country.

[citizen]

True Story:
Recently, I transported a young woman from the airport back to her house; she and her aunt were prevented from boarding a flight to Mexico. Her aunt had a copy of her birth certificate, but lacked any photo ID. Could not obtain any photo ID cause she is here illegally. Can not fly out cause she can't prove her identity. So we KEEP them here? .....Catch-22 or what?

[Tom B]

Pass a law requiring real proof of U.S. citizenship to vote and listen to the Dems holler. They have picked up many many votes out of this.

[HankB]

"American business interests want cheap labor."

Everytime someone says this as justification for turning a blind eye to illegals, I ask "Does this mean that there are no longer any able-bodied adults on welfare in the USA? None at all?"

If welfare for able-bodied adults were eliminated, then plenty of the low-paying jobs would be filled. Hunger is a great incentive to work.

[bookkie]

Here in California, reality is that our agriculture could not survive without the migrant work force from Mexico. I?ve worked in the industry for over 20 years. During that time over 95% of our workers have been illegal immigrants. You can?t get anyone who is on welfare to work in the fields. Just not enough money for them. They make more by staying at home. It is interesting to note how easy it is for them to get proper ID?s so that they can meet the requirements to be hired. Ie? SS#, picture ID.. etc. Used to have problems of the SS administration giving us a big list of invalid SS#?s at the end of the year. Then we started calling them into the SS administration to validate them before we hired the employee. Well I know most are still illegal, but now their SS#?s pass muster.

What do I think is the solution to the problem? Work permits. After all most of these employees go back home during the winter months when there are no jobs available.

[Gunter]

An Austrian citizen wanting to own a gun is considered a potential murderer (there is even a psychological test to pass). Anyone from ex-Yugoslavia or Turkey who posesses an illegal weapon (costing a quarter of the cost of a license!) is "expressing his cultural background". Theft, burglary and such are "multicultural wealth redistribution".

The object of encouraging a multicultural society is to relativate away the traditions peculiar to one country, thus destroying part of the identity of a people; and aiding the creation of herds of rootless, disoriented votestock (i.e. voter livestock) that may be driven at will to where the government/media wants. I elect to call this democratism. You only have to fool just over half the people most of the time.

[George Hill]

Rex - They can HAVE California.

[longeyes]

Having lived in California a long, long time, I cringe when I hear cynical remarks like "They can have, California." There's a reason that people flocked to this state from the early part of the 20th century onward. It has to do with the very things that a lot of people on this forum would prize: the ability to live free. California attracted people of all kinds and has provided an environment that offers more than the just the best climate to be found anywhere. There were things that the people who came here felt they had to leave behind in order to find true self-expression. If you truly believe in freedom and diversity and the ability for an individual to be himself/herself without interference, you should lament the fact that California is undergoing, politically and socially, what appears to be an unfortunate sea-change. Believe me, California implies the future, and how we resolve our complex issues regarding immigration, economics, social mores, media values, and, yes, firearms will affect everyone in this country. If you think you can isolate yourself from what California is and represents, think again: California's a magnet. Ask your kids if you don't believe me.