Mexican "Amusement" Park
The Christian Science Monitor reports that a Hidalgo, Mexico man has opened a new amusement park offering a simulated nighttime illegal border crossing experience (”Caminata Nocturna” or “Night Hike”), complete with armed border patrol officers. The owner says that his idea is to generate funds for the local economy so that people will stay put rather than making the trip across the border to find work. Apparently more than 3,000 Mexicans have visited in the almost three years since the park opened, most of which seem to be doing it for “fun” or to discourage their teenagers from attempting the real thing. For the $18 entrance fee, one imagines this park must be aimed at upper-class Mexicans and foreigners rather than the population who might actually be so desperate as to make the dangerous journey.
I’m not sure what I think of this. I suppose it is the owner’s honest intention to help his local townspeople find jobs and boost the economy, but it seems like it almost makes fun of the people who are in such dire circumstances that they choose to enter the U.S. this way. I bet those people are not “amused”.
