Mexico Is Building 10 Border Towers
1 of 10 Planned To Help Crossers Who Need Water, Other Assistance

May 23, 2002
By Tim Steller, ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Mexico is constructing a lighted, 100-foot tower in the desert south of Sasabe for border-crossers who need water, said the commissioner of the Mexican migration institute.

The tower will be one of 10 that Mexico places in strategic spots across its side of the border, Commissioner Felipe de Jesus Preciado Coronado said.

Preciado Coronado is planning to be in Tucson today to take part in announcements of border-safety measures that both governments are taking to prevent the deaths of illegal entrants. The Mexican towers may be the most dramatic of the announcements, but American officials will also discuss using "rescue beacons" in the Border Patrol's Yuma Sector, said Immigration and Naturalization Service spokesman Bill Strassberger.

This concept includes towers with lights and distress buttons that migrants in trouble can press to ask for help.

American officials are also planning to announce they will expand the use of "pepperball launchers." These non-lethal weapons have been tested in San Diego since last year, but now will be used in the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector, among other places, Strassberger said.

When completed, each of Mexico's 10 towers will have a solar cell that powers a light that shines during the night, Preciado Coronado said. The towers will also have drinking water available in containers.

The tower planned for the Altar desert in the Sasabe area is the first of the 10, he said, but the other nine locations have not been chosen.

"It's a function very much like that of a lighthouse," Preciado Coronado said.

In many cases, border-crossers have died because they did not want to approach American immigration officials, he added.

The towers apparently are modeled after those put up by Humane Borders. That Tucson organization has erected 30-foot flagpoles above water tanks in 17 spots in Southern Arizona. One of Humane Borders' towers north of Sasabe also has a solar-powered light attached to the top.

"I love it if it'll save lives," the Rev. Robin Hoover, Humane Borders' president, said of the two countries' initiatives.

The agents of Grupo Beta, Mexico's migrant-protection force, will be charged with maintaining the Mexican towers, Preciado Coronado said. Timoteo de Jesus Salas, the coordinator of Grupo Beta's office in Sasabe, Sonora, said Wednesday that he had not yet received official word of the towers.

Most illegal entrants get in trouble after walking miles into the United States. But there are places along the border, Hoover said, where migrants must walk as much as 12 miles before they enter the United States, and the towers could be useful.

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