Mexico says fewer people dying crossing illegally into U.S.

CNN
February 11, 2000

Mexico says fewer people dying crossing illegally into U.S.

                   MEXICO CITY (AP) -- The number of people who died while attempting to
                   enter the United States from Mexico clandestinely fell by 14 percent in 1999,
                   the Mexican government said Friday.

                   The total number of deaths along the 3,200-kilometer (2,000-mile) border last
                   year was 324, compared with 377 in 1998, the Interior Ministry reported. Most
                   of the victims died of drowning or dehydration.

                   The government credited the drop in the death toll to special squads patrolling
                   the Mexican side of the border known as the Grupos Beta -- set up in 1990 to
                   protect vulnerable immigrants.

                   In 1999 the Grupos Beta rescued 15,054 people who were either in high risk
                   areas near the border, or had been abandoned by immigrant-traffickers often
                   without food or water, the Interior Ministry said.

                   There are currently six such squads patrolling Mexico's northern frontier with
                   the United States, and a further three on the country's southern border with
                   Guatemala.