 |
|
|
 News from Around the Americas | April 2006 
Mexican and U.S. Governments Expand Program Against Migrant Smugglers
 Ioan Grillo - Associated Press
| | A van packed with migrants begins its journey to the US. (AP/Guillermo Arias) |
Mexico and the United States announced Tuesday they will expand a joint program to crack down on people smugglers, an action that coincides with the start of the peak season of undocumented migrants sneaking north over the border.
The OASISS Program, an intelligence sharing initiative aimed at arresting and prosecuting smugglers, will now operate from San Diego, California, to El Paso, Texas, Mexico's Foreign Relations Department and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced in news releases. The program was first introduced in August and applied to the areas between San Diego and Yuma, Arizona.
Under the initiative, Mexican and U.S. agents share real-time information on the movements of traffickers and exchange evidence to prosecute them in court.
The program already has helped put 120 migrant traffickers in prison, President Vicente Fox said last week.
“Securing the border is a shared responsibility. And we must continue to build and foster our strong partnership with the Government of Mexico,” U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said in a news released issued from Washington.
The number of undocumented migrants trying to sneak over the U.S. Mexico border traditionally hits the highest levels between April and September, despite the sweltering summer heat.
U.S. attempts to tighten border security since 1994 have led to a massive growth of people-trafficking gangs, which normally charge about $1,200 (euro980) to get migrants into the United States.
Smugglers often take migrants into dangerous tracts of desert where they leave them with little water. Last year, 415 people perished trying to make the crossing, surpassing the previous record of 383 set in 2000.
Furthermore, a record 1.2 million people were arrested trying to sneak over the border in 2005, up from 1.16 million in 2004.
The U.S. Congress is currently debating several reforms to immigration and border security laws. Under consideration are bills that would tighten security and punish undocumented migrants, and proposals that would increase work and citizenship opportunities for them. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us