Critics say packages of medicine and food encourage illegal entry.
So starting next month, the government will distribute up to 200,000 survival kits to people planning to head north. The kits will contain medicine and information to prepare emigrants for what they face on the trip, which usually includes a trek through the remote deserts and mountains of Arizona or California because of increased U.S. border security. The packets will include anti-diarrheal medicine, adhesive bandages, aspirin, acetaminophen, medicine for snake and scorpion bites, powder to prevent dehydration, water, salt, dry meat, cans of tuna and granola. Women will receive 25 birth-control pills, men 25 condoms. AIDS is a small but growing problem in rural Mexico.