5,100 crosses at Mexico border mark migrant deaths

Associated Press
October 30, 2009

TIJUANA, Mexico -- Rights activists in the norhtern Mexican border city of Tijuana have hung 5,100 small white crosses on the fence straddling the U.S, frontier to commemorate migrants who have died trying to cross.

The protest coincides with preparations for Mexico's Nov. 1 Day of the Dead holiday. The crosses represent the number of migrants estimated to have died in the 15 years since the nited States toughened border security.

The Coalition for the Defense of Migrants also erected a traditional floral offering for the dead.

The Mexican government estimates about 350,000 of its citizens migrate to the U.S. annually.