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05/25/2008: "Fake border crossing the new outdoor adventure"

Gunshots ring out and sirens shriek, mixing with the ragged breath of muddy, panting humans. Suddenly, the full moon sweeping the ground like a searchlight reveals a disturbing scene: a group of illegal immigrants being handcuffed and led away by U.S. Border Patrol agents.
But the U.S. border is 700 miles from this rugged municipal park in Hidalgo state, a three-hour drive north of Mexico City. The spectacle unfolding here isn't an actual border crossing attempt but a live simulation-adventure that attempts to give participants a taste of what it's like for the thousands of Mexican and other Latin American undocumented migrants trying to enter the promised land of "el norte."

Dubbed the "Caminata Nocturna" (Night Hike), the three-hour simulation is a combination obstacle course, sociology lesson and PG-rated family outing. Founded in 2004, it's run by members of a local village of Hnahnu Indians, an indigenous people of south-central Mexico, whose population of about 2,500 has been decimated by migration to the United States

"It's part of our culture, and it's important to know it," said Sergio Mendieta, a secondary school teacher from the state of Mexico.

[ Being an illegal immigrant is part of Mexican culture?! ]

http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/267662/36/