New sneakers for illegal immigrants...including map

[buttmunch]

These boots were made for walking - across the border.
Brooklyn artist Judi Werthein is jumping into the volatile debate over illegal immigration by creating special high tops designed for sneaking into the United States.

A map of the border area around Tijuana, Mexico, and the best routes to San Diego is printed on the removable insole. A compass and tiny flashlight are fixed to the shoelaces, helping the wearer travel day or night.

The "Brinco" - jump in Spanish - is olive green with an Aztec eagle on the heel and an American eagle on the toe, symbolizing the home they are leaving and the dream they are chasing.

Werthein, who immigrated legally from Argentina to Brooklyn in 1997, sells the shoes for $215 to well-heeled customers at galleries like Printed Matter in Chelsea. She hands out the rest to migrants in Tijuana preparing to make the dangerous trek into the U.S.

"The main problem that people have when they're crossing is their feet," Werthein says. "If people are going to cross anyway, at least this will make it safer."

Opponents of illegal immigration say she's encouraging crime.

"What she's doing is helping people break the law," said Peter Lanteri, New York spokesman for the Minutemen, a citizens' group that patrols the Mexican border to try to deter illegal immigration. "That's only going to encourage more people to break the law. Instead, she should be focusing on making it easier for people to come here legally."

Werthein says people will cross with or without her shoes.

At a Tijuana shelter for migrants run by Catholic nuns, Werthein passed out Brincos while BBC cameras filmed.

When she gave a pair to Guadalupe Elias, who has never had a pair of new shoes, the woman burst into tears. "I'm crying because you gave me these and almost no one ever helps me," Elias said in the BBC report.

At another shelter, Werthein waved the insole map. "This blue line is where you want to go. Good luck! You're all very courageous," she told about 50 men preparing to head over the border - most with construction jobs already lined up.

"God bless you!" several cried.

To underscore her message of global trade and inequity, Werthein has embroidered the shoes with "this product was manufactured in China under a minimum wage of $42 a month working 12-hour days."

I don't even know what to think of this. I get her point but...

[KristiB]

I live in AZ. Immigration is a hot topic here.

It's true they're going to cross anyway but we shouldn't make it easier or safer for them.