Saturday, March 14, 2009

The Border Patrol's top 40

Like U.S. Cuba policy, U.S. immigration policy often gets downright bizarre. The Washington Post reports on the Border Patrol's newest effort to deter would-be border crossers: corridos.

In what may be among the lesser-known deterrents exercised by our nation's security forces, the Border Patrol is deploying up-tempo Mexican folk songs about tragic border crossings to dissuade would-be illegal immigrants. The agency has paid -- how much, it won't say -- a D.C.-based advertising company to write, record and distribute an album, "Migra Corridos," to radio stations in Mexico.

Better than a fence, I'll give them that. But I think that they need to work on the lyrics.

Before you cross the border, remember that you can be just as much a man by chickening out and staying

Because it's better to keep your life than ending up dead.

It sounds better than it reads, though--the article includes some audio samples.

"When we approached the Mexican media, we approach it as a humanitarian campaign," says Pablo Izquierdo, vice president of Elevación. "We didn't tell them who was behind it because consumer research indicated that it wasn't going to be as well-received."

I don't think you needed much consumer research to know that.

1 comments:

redwood 2:43 PM  

honestly, how hard is it to make sure the translation works in both Spanish and English? Someone in the governmental office that made that decision should join the ranks of the unemployed.

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