Monday, February 05, 2007

Mexican theme park makes fun of Border Patrol, turns crossing into sport

The group scurries down the canyon wall, their feet slipping in the ankle-deep mud. Sirens grow louder as their guide, clad in a ski mask and known only as Poncho, urges them to run faster. "Hurry up! The Border Patrol is coming!"

These aren't undocumented immigrants. They're tourists, probably from the U.S., and they’re about 700 miles from the border. They've each paid about $15, for Mexico's strangest tourist attraction: a night as an undocumented immigrant crossing the Rio Grande. Advertising tells the pretend immigrants to "Make fun of the Border Patrol!" and to "Cross the border as an extreme sport!"

Organizers are trying to build empathy for migrants by putting people in their shoes. It’s no surprise that the Mexican government, which distributes comic-book style guides to help Mexicans illegally cross the border, also helped finance the creation of the Eco Alberto nature park.

3 comments:

  1. This would explain why our US government officials feel it is okay for illegals to come to our country and trample our laws. Perhaps we should have our own tourist attraction where we try to shoot people trying to make it across (of course not real bullets).

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  2. Hey! Brighten Up! Most Mexicans I have met are nice warm welcoming people - I love them to bits. You guys are extremely lucky to have Mexico on your frontier. You could do a lot worse and have Albania - trust me, the Albanians are a great deal of fun - I lived in a house full of them; all illegal, all hardworking but all full of noise and trouble. Never had that problem with the Mexicans.

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Please be civil. Thank you.