Travel tips

last updated 8 January 2015

Mexico City

The Mexican government is distributing a 32-page guide telling illegal migrants how to safely sneak into the U.S. The guide, which resembles a comic book, suggests adding salt to water to avoid dehydration in the desert, and advises against swimming across the Rio Grande at night or alone. “Once inside the U.S.,” the pamphlet says, “don’t call attention to yourself. Avoid loud parties.” More than 300 Mexicans died last year crossing the border, and the government is merely trying to help others avoid the same fate, a foreign ministry spokesman said. But John Keeley of the Center for Immigration Studies said Mexico was advising its citizens on how to break American laws. “It’s very, very troubling,” he said.