East Asia-Pacific Issues | Chinese Human Smuggling

Introduction Nature as well as man pose very real threats to illegal immigrants attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. In an effort to reduce the number of deaths among illegal immigrants, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has produced a number of films and public service announcements. Following is the transcript of the excerpts of one such film called The Enemy Unseen. (begin transcript) (Visual information: Printed title - The Enemy Unseen) Music (Visual information: Still photos of dead migrants are shown in turn.) Narrator: Silenced by death, these people's faces reveal more about their suffering than words ever could. Like hundreds before them, they came to the United States from Central America and Mexico searching for a new life. What awaited them instead was untold pain and ultimately death. Death at the hands of an enemy they could not see. Death at the hands of an enemy they almost certainly did not understand. (Visual information: Film footage of a migrant's corpse found in a river; U.S. officials carrying a body in a body bag. A group of people are shown standing on shore watching the activity.) Narrator: No one warned these people about the danger of following their dreams. Now it is too late. But the governments of the United States, Mexico and Guatemala recognize that it is not too late for many others. (Visual information: Arial footage of an American desert along the southern border.) Narrator: This is where the so-called "American Dream" ends for many -- in the heart of one of the border's harsh and seemingly endless deserts. (Visual information: Picture of a map of southern United States and northern Mexico.) Narrator: In some places here, the distances are so vast and the summer heat so extreme, that a person cannot carry enough water to stay alive. (Visual information: Footage of Johnny Williams, U.S. Border Patrol, Immigration and Naturalization Service) Johnny Williams, U.S. Border Patrol: The body then begins to absorb water from your organs and your glands, and you become disoriented. You become lost; you become delirious. (Visual information: Footage of two Border Patrol officers carrying a migrant out of the desert.) Narrator: In the desert, the migrants' enemy is a lack of water. (Visual information: Arial shot of the Rio Grande -- "big river" in Spanish. Migrants are shown trying to swim across. Close ups of the swift currents.) Narrator: But east of Arizona, along the Rio Grande, the enemy is water itself. (Visual information: Close up of migrants swimming. Close up of the corpse of a migrant caught in some plant life at the river's edge. Footage of U.S. authorities carrying a body in a body bag. Some are wearing facemasks) Narrator: Every year, dozens of unsuspecting migrants drown attempting to cross the mighty river. Sadly, many of the dead are never identified. Their names, like their dreams, lost forever in the treacherous current. (Visual information: Film footage of gangs of men throwing rocks at each other in a desert ravine. Narrator: Arriving migrants who overcome nature's obstacles have yet another thing to fear: roving bands of thieves called "border bandits." (Visual information: Close up of a man crying over the body of a migrant.) Narrator: The more fortunate victims lose only their belongings. Some, like this man, lose their lives. (Visual information: INS agents opening the back of a truck containing migrants. Narrator: And the dangers for the newly arrived migrants do not end there. The tractor trailer trucks and rail cars many favor for transportation are fraught with hazards. (Visual information: Film footage of migrants running towards train cars stopped on a railroad track. Scene of a migrant running along the top of a moving train car. Scene of U.S. officers removing the body of a migrant in a body bag from a train car.) Narrator: Dozens of migrants are injured or killed each year while trying to jump aboard moving trains. Those who do ride the rails may be exposed to yet another unseen enemy: traces of potentially deadly chemicals. (Visual information: Scene of U.S. officer ordering migrants out of the compartment of a truck.) Narrator: By the same token, a twist of fate can transform the seemingly safe compartment of a tractor-trailer rig like this one from a convenient ride into an airtight coffin. (Visual information: Several scenes of migrants running across highways. Narrator: The risks for those who cross the United State southern border are considerable. But in many ways the migrants worst enemy is the unknown. Helping these people to recognize the risks and to avoid them will save countless lives and suffering. (Visual information: Still photo of a dead illegal migrant.) (end transcript) Return to smuggling by land page

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