(8 Apr 2006) SHOTLIST
Nogales, Sonora - 4/5 April
1. Train pulls into station
2. Train station
3. Car going through US Immigration border checkpoint
4. American flag
5. Fence at border with border patrol on US Side
Sasabe, Sonora - 4/5 April
6. White van carrying migrants to US
7. Worker for government organisation known as ''Grupo Beta'', Miguel Martinez, approaches van full of migrants
8. Various of migrants listening to advice in back of van
9. Woman migrant listening
10. White truck pulls up
11. Various of people waiting for nightfall to travel 500 metres across the border
12. Water jugs on ground, pull out to group waiting
13. Guadalupe Mendez and son, Ricardo, waiting
14. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Guadalupe Mendez, trying to cross into US:
"So far everything is going well. It is a long way, especially for me since I have the child with me."
15. Various of people looking around the area, waiting for departure
16. Various of people making coffee while waiting for departure
17. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Zambrano Velasco, from Chiapas state, trying to cross into US:
"Definitely, I go to win or lose, to live or to die, my goal is to survive and this is a free country."
18. Various of people waiting
19. Moving shot from truck with people on board departing for US
STORYLINE
Untold numbers of Mexicans hoping for a better life in the US attempt to make the illegal, and increasingly treacherous, journey across the border each year.
Authorities reported that more than one (m) million Mexicans were arrested in 2005 whilst attempting to cross the US-Mexico border, which stretches two-thousand miles (32-hundred kilometres) from end to end.
A further 415 people died.
With the US Congress currently debating changes to federal immigration laws, the issue of cross-border migration has become a topic for heated debate on both sides of the border.
As part of a series of exclusive reports focusing on the immigration debate, AP Television News met up with a group of Mexicans hoping to make the illegal crossing from Sasabe in Mexico''s Sonora desert into the US state of Arizona.
Amonst those waiting to make the next leg of the long journey to the US were Guadalupe Mendez and her son, Ricardo.
Guadalupe is one of thousands of Mexicans to head to Sasabe, 70 miles (112 kilometres) south of Tucson.
It has become a hot destination largely because of increased US Border Patrol operations elsewhere along the border.
Over the past decade, beefed-up sweeps such as Operation Gatekeeper, which targeted smuggling routes through the border cities of Tijuana, El Paso and Laredo, largely shut down the traditional migrant crossings along the California and Texas borders, pushing migration to the corridor south of Arizona.
Migrants'' journeys often start deep in Mexico''s interior, in poor southern states like Oaxaca, Veracruz and Puebla, historically the principal senders of US-bound labour.
"So far everything is going well. It is a long way, especially for me since I have the child with me," Guadalupe said.
Before Guadalupe and the other would-be immigrants set off on their journey, they met members of Grupo Beta, a government-sponsored group that tries to discourage people from crossing and aids those stranded in the desert.
Miguel Martinez warns them of the perils of the journey and advises them to bring enough food and water.
The logistics of crossing are complicated, and dangerous.
Migrants often assemble in teams and hire guides known as "coyotes" to help them make a successful trip.
From there, the Mexicans begin a difficult desert march of up to 50 miles (80 kilometres).
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