Mexican group cancels plan to hand out maps of Arizona water sources

Published: 2006-01-31

MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- Mexico's national human rights watchdog has canceled plans to distribute maps that would help migrants crossing the U.S. border find lifesaving water tanks in the Arizona desert. Mexico's National Human Rights Commission said in a Jan. 25 statement that it suspended the program because "massive distribution of maps showing risk areas and emergency (water) stations could also generate greater risks to their (migrants) health by exposing them to the heavy-handed tactics of anti-immigrant groups." The plan to distribute 70,000 poster-size maps in Mexico caused outrage among anti-immigration activists in the United States, where one group said it would use the maps to hunt illegal immigrants and turn them over to the U.S. Border Patrol. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called the map-distribution plan a "bad idea." "This effort will entice more people to cross, leading to more migrant deaths and the further enrichment of the criminal human trafficking rings that prey on the suffering of others," Chertoff said in a statement released Jan. 25, the day after the map-distribution plan was announced in Mexico.

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