I am pleased to be here today at the Border Patrol's checkpoint at Falfurrias, Texas, and to be with such distinguished guests as:

• My friend and colleague Commissioner Magdelena Carral, head of Mexico's Immigration agency;
• Gus De La Viña, Chief of the Border Patrol;
• Arturo San Miguel, the Regional Delegate for the Mexican Immigration agency and;
• Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Cusick from Corpus Christi;

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert C.Bonner along with Chief of CBP Border Patrol Gus De La Vina and Commissioner of National Institute of Migration, Ministry of Interior in Mexico Magdalena Carral-Cuevas announced this year's Border Safety Initiative in Falfurrias TX today.

The Border Safety Initiative for the U.S./Mexico Border is a binational effort. So, Commissioner Magdelena Carral of the Mexican Government's National Institute of Migration is with me today to promote this partnership between our two nations as we work together to secure our mutual border and make it safer.

Today's event marks the beginning of what has tragically come to be known as the "season of death," the period between May and late September, when the majority of illegal border-crossing-related deaths occur along and near our shared border with Mexico, from California - to right here in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas - including, of course, Arizona -and the treacherous Sonoran Desert where, year after year, the majority of deaths occur.

For most people, the "season of death" is simply spring and summer, the most enjoyable time of the year. But along the U.S.-Mexico border, it's the time when the largest numbers of illegal migrants die trying to cross the border. Eighty percent-ladies and gentlemen, eighty percent-of the deaths that occur each year happen during this "season of death," this season begins now and will go until October.

On March 1, 2003, U.S. Customs and Border Protection was created as part of the Department of Homeland Security. Our priority mission is national security, to keep terrorists and their weapons out of the United States. To do that, we merged the four agencies with border responsibilities into a single super-agency, called U.S. Customs and Border Protection. This merger included the U.S. Customs Service, and the entire Border Patrol, as well as all of the immigration, customs and agriculture inspectors at all our ports of entry and our official crossing points. All U.S. border personnel are now unified into a single agency to manage, control and secure our borders. By pooling all that expertise, personnel, technology, wisdom, skill, and talent, we are controlling our borders as never before.

Next week marks the one-year anniversary of one of this country's worst human-smuggling stories -- the discovery, by the Border Patrol, of 19 people, including an infant, found dead, locked in the back of a tractor-trailer that had been abandoned in Victoria, Texas -not far from here. That tragic event-they died of heat, thirst, and suffocation while trying to claw their way out of an airless compartment that had been latched shut from the outside-that event was a revelation for the entire nation as to what illegal human smuggling is really about.

"Coyotes," those who smuggle humans for profit, are the driving force behind the deaths, such as the ones in Victoria, Texas, and behind the equally horrific deaths that occur in one's, two's, and three's-the ones we rarely hear about, but are happening everyday somewhere along or near our mutual border.

Before the Victoria tragedy, alien smuggling in America was viewed as a regional or border problem, if it was even thought about at all. It certainly wasn't on the radar screen for folks in states like Iowa, Michigan or Oregon.

Now, we realize that people senselessly die when we fail to control our border and we realize that to save lives and also to increase homeland security, we need to better control our borders.

As shocking as it was to find 19 human beings dead in that cramped and airless tomb, that number actually pales in comparison to the hundreds of migrants who die each year trying to illegally cross from Mexico into the United States. Nearly 2,000 people have died over the past six years attempting illegal border crossings. There were 340 recorded deaths last year alone.

A Roman philosopher, Seneca, said that - "calamity is virtue's opportunity." And the deaths in Victoria, a calamity by any yardstick, did lead to a certain "virtue": it raised public awareness in both countries and the need to do more.

It also exposed an opportunity: tighter border security will help prevent casualties like these. As stronger border control measures are applied -- ideally, on both sides of the border -- it will make it harder for the human smugglers to bring their human cargo across.

As part of the Border Safety Initiative that we are announcing here today, we are launching a series of television spots aimed at potential illegal migrants and their loved ones. These public service announcements reveal how utterly vile and ruthless the smugglers are, the smugglers who transport desperate, defenseless human beings for fees of two- to ten thousand dollars and more, and in many cases simply abandon them to die.

We are also rolling out radio spots and posters targeting populations in Central America and southern Mexico, where over 75 percent of the illegal migrants arrested by our CBP Border Patrol agents come from.

The message is:
"No Mas Cruces en la Frontera"
"No more crosses on the Border"

As part of the Border Safety Initiative, the Border Patrol will provide, search, rescue, and emergency services to lost, stranded, and injured illegal migrants as it has in the past. Indeed, in the past six years, the Border Patrol has rescued more than 7,600 migrants from near certain death.

Border Patrol agents rescued over 1,200 people last year.

But make no mistake about the Border Safety Initiative. The migrants who cross our borders are entering the United States in violation of U.S. laws. And I must stress that as much as we deplore the loss of human life-and we do-and as much as we condemn ruthless human smugglers who put lives at risk for profit-and we do-we will enforce the laws of the United States.

We will and we must control and secure our border.

We at U.S. Customs and Border Protection are emphasizing safety, but part of border safety is better control of our borders. By controlling our border, by reducing the migrant flow, we also save lives.

Our cooperation with the Government of Mexico is good. It's been enhanced as part of our border partnership, developed by Department of Homeland Security's Tom Ridge and Santiago Creel, Secretary of Gubernacion. There's trust and mutual respect. We have been working cooperatively with the Government of Mexico to explore a number of ways to reduce migrant deaths, including interior repatriation, that will help save lives.

Interior repatriation, if implemented, would provide a mechanism to remove migrants from harm's way. Migrants who are otherwise trapped at the border under the extreme conditions of the Sonoran desert and at the mercy of callous smugglers.

Currently, migrants apprehended crossing the border at Arizona are returned to a border town on the Mexican side -Nogales, Mexico - delivered back into the arms of the human smugglers, a process which repeatedly exposes the migrants to death in the desert. This makes no sense whatsoever.

As part of the Border Safety Initiative, more than thirteen hundred Mexican officers, including many from the Mexican Immigration Institute's Grupo Beta, have received training from CBP's Border Patrol in search and rescue techniques, aquatic safety, and emergency medical procedures. They have also received training in land navigation, bike patrol, and all-terrain vehicle maneuvers. These skills are essential if we are to meet the goals of the Border Safety Initiative.

But as I've said before, Border Safety Initiative is part of our border partnership and our border security strategy.

A secure border is a safe border, and a safe border saves lives.

One of the best ways to save lives is to reduce the number of illegal immigrants who try to cross in the first place.

A recent migrant, arrested by the Border Patrol in Arizona, said it well: He had walked three days in the desert and had run out of water by the time the Border Patrol apprehended him.

He said, "It's already very hard to cross, and it's going to get even harder." And he is right. It already is a lot harder -- as a result of the Arizona Border Control Operation, being led by the Border Patrol -- to get through.

We also want to get the message out that with more Border Patrol agents and technology and sensors, you're going to be caught if you try to cross illegally into the U.S.

It is not worth risking your life!

With the continued cooperation of the Mexican government, the Border Safety Initiative will provide an even higher level of border safety and security, it will deter would-be migrants, disrupt smuggling cartels and -in the end - it will save lives.