MEXICO CITY - A Mexican government commission said Thursday it has suspended plans to distribute border maps to migrants planning to cross the border illegally, but denied the decision was a response to U.S. criticism.
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Miguel Angel Paredes, the spokesman for the federal Human Rights Commission, said the plan would be "rethought" because human rights officials in border states expressed concern that the maps would show anti-immigrant groups such as the so-called Minutemen civilian patrols where migrants were likely to gather.
"This would be practically like telling the Minutemen where the migrants are going to be," Paredes said. "We are going to rethink this, so that we wouldn't almost be handing them over to groups that attack migrants."
Mexico is angry about U.S. civilian groups that have organized patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border, accusing them of carrying out attacks on migrants, accusations the groups deny.
The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps said it intended to use the maps to stake out likely entry points for illegal immigrants.
"If they're going to give out maps, we're going to use those maps to report that activity to the proper authorities," said Chris Simcox, a co-founder of the group.
But Simcox said his group already knows the locations of many watering spots and criticized the Mexican government for trying to "vilify" his group. He said volunteer reports of migrant activity had helped rescuers locate and save migrants in danger.
The map dispute was the latest diplomatic row involving the U.S.-Mexico border, a sensitive issue between the neighboring nations.
U.S. border states are fed up with illegal migration and drug trafficking and are pressuring the U.S. government to do more to protect the border including a proposal to extend a wall along both countries' common frontier, something Mexico bitterly resents.
On Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the United States opposes "in the strongest terms" plans to distribute the maps.
Asked if the Mexican decision was a response to U.S. pressure, Paredes said: "No, we are not responding to that. ... We have not taken that into account."
However, Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez sought to distance the Mexican government from the maps.
"We are not involved in the production or distribution of these famous maps, nor much less in the whole process," Derbez said.
The commission, a Mexican government-funded agency with independent powers, originally said it would print and pay for at least 70,000 maps showing highways, rescue beacons and water tanks in the Arizona desert.
The posters were to have been distributed in border towns and through human rights offices in Mexico starting in March, when illegal border crossings are usually high.
The commission denied the maps would encourage illegal immigration, saying instead they would help guide those in trouble.
Now, the group will "seek other ways" of helping migrants, Paredes said.
The posters were designed by the Tucson, Ariz.,-based rights group Humane Borders, which operates several desert water stations. The group previously distributed about 100 posters in the Mexican border town of Sasabe.
Some of the posters have warnings, such as: "Don't go. There isn't enough water."
However, officials conceded many migrants were unlikely to heed the advice.
Chertoff's condemnation of the maps was categorical.
"It is a bad idea to encourage migrants to undertake this highly dangerous and ultimately futile effort," Chertoff said. "This effort will entice more people to cross, leading to more migrant deaths and the further enrichment of the criminal human trafficking rings that prey on the suffering of others."
AP Writer Bob Christie in Phoenix, Arizona contributed to this report.