see also: in August 2005 Press Releases:   DHS: Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative Formally Submitted for Public Comment   U.S. Customs and Border Protection Canine Superstar Wins Paws to Recognize Voting Contest   Border Patrol Seizes Refrigerated Truck Trailer Loaded with Aliens   U.S. Customs and Border Protection Selects the “Predator B” as Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Platform to Guard our Nations Borders   CBP Border Patrol Agents Arrest Murder Suspect   U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer Apprehends Man Wanted for Murder   CBP Aircraft Coordinates Vessel Interdiction; Major Load of Cocaine Seized ...more on cbp.gov:   CBP News Releases   Press Officers

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SAN DIEGO - U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials today announced the launch of a locally-produced radio and television public service campaign aimed at listeners in the U.S. and Mexico who are contemplating the use of paid smugglers to illegally transport family members, including minors, into the U.S. inside potentially dangerous hidden compartments in vehicles.

The pre-recorded public service messages, produced in Spanish with the assistance of the U.S. Border Patrol and Univision Radio, focus on children who are more vulnerable to the dangers associated with being smuggled in confined spaces where border traffic waits and summer temperatures can create potentially dangerous situations.

CBP plans to initially distribute the materials to Spanish language radio and television stations on both sides of the California border and, with the assistance of the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, to outlets throughout the interior of Mexico.

A 14-year old Mexican girl discovered by CBP Officers hidden inside the driver's seat of a passenger van.

Last year CBP officers at ports of entry on the California-Mexico border apprehended over 49,000 undocumented persons being smuggled into the U.S. Through June of this fiscal year, CBP officers have apprehended over 36,000 migrants being smuggled through California ports of entry.

The number of undocumented minors, including infants and youngsters, apprehended at ports of entry last fiscal year climbed to almost 6,500, up 17 percent over the previous year. Over 4,200 minors have been apprehended trying to enter the U.S. illegally so far this year. Many of these children were hidden by paid smugglers in the seats, dashboard, gas tank, trunk, engine compartment or other areas of passenger cars and trucks before they entered the U.S..

“We have noticed an upward trend in the number of undocumented persons apprehended during smuggling attempts, which we attribute in part to tighter security by our officers at the border stations and increased efforts by our Border Patrol agents between the ports,” said Adele Fasano, CBP director of field operations in San Diego. “But, a dangerous and potentially tragic trend over the past few years increasingly involves the smuggling of young children in a wide variety of vehicle compartments and conveyances that place them at risk of injury or death at the hands of smugglers whose only interest is money.”

CBP officers have not yet found any smuggled adults or children who have expired, although some have required extraction from vehicles by San Diego firefighters using the “jaws of life” or urgent medical assistance, Fasano said.

“However, we believe it is just a matter of time before families, communities and our nations agonize over the tragic loss of a smuggled child found in a vehicle who, at the hands of a paid smuggler, met a similar fate as those who have perished in the desert trying to cross the border,” she said. “We plan to continue to work closely with Mexican officials, our stakeholders, community organizations and the media to bring attention to this disturbing trend in an effort to educate undocumented families not to entrust their youngsters to smugglers.”

The grass-roots campaign in California will supplement the existing Border Safety Initiative already in place by CBP’s Office of Border Patrol.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of the nation’s borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.