Mexico's Fox Defends Comments on Radio

SFGate.com ^ | May 22, 2005 | MORGAN LEE, Associated Press Writer

[madfly]

President Vicente Fox on Sunday defended his commitment to minorities and human rights on a U.S. radio program, in his first public response to his controversial comment that Mexicans take the U.S. jobs that "not even" blacks want.

U.S. civil rights activist Jesse Jackson pressed the Mexican president for an apology for the remark that has strained already tense relations between U.S. blacks and Hispanics, during an interview on a Chicago gospel station.

"I very much regret the misinterpretation," said Fox, touting laws created under his administration that outlaw discrimination and protect minorities.

Fox met with Jackson behind closed doors on Wednesday in Mexico City after the president's comments about blacks ignited a firestorm of criticism from the black community and angered the U.S. government.

[texastoo]

So what is the percentage of the hispanics where you live in the midwest?

[USMC Veteran]

I live on this border 95% hispanic. I don't think I have ever seen a hispanic on a bicycle going to work.

I live in San Diego and I see them around migrant camps all the time on $500.00 bicycles. My question is how does that happen?

[hispanichoosier]

Do you contact HS every time you come across an illegal?

Not anymore. Not enough time. They told us they wouldn't do anything unless certain felonies were involved. Given our caseload, we can't waste our time trying to get them involved when we know they'll just reiterate their policy.

[LNewman]

Likewise, I can say that Americans in general seem to have less of a work ethic than illegals who come here to work

AMERICANS, likewise, do not want to live like MEXICANS in their own country. They do NOT want to live 20 to an apartment. They do NOT, generally speaking (ha!), want to glom on to every government handout and charity freebie. Their ladies don't get knocked up as a pretence to maintain their dubious claims to generations of unremitting destitution. In general, I'd have to say A WHOLE BUNCH is being taken for granted in your statements there HH.

[hispanichoosier]

So what is the percentage of the hispanics where you live in the midwest?

About 5%.

[LNewman]

At least 3 of them have mine.

[hispanichoosier]

Interesting that you focus your comments to Mexicans. Since I'm not one of them, I don't really know what they do or do not think or do. Moreover, notice that I did not limit my comments regarding work ethic to only hispanics. We have a very hard-working (and illegal) community of Lithuanians in our county.

[judgeandjury]

The thing is, illegals are doing jobs that Americans of all colors will not do.

There is no such thing as jobs that Americans will not do. It sounds like you've fallen for the lies of the Left. Yes, there are jobs that Americans will not do for the wages being offered. But Americans will do any job if the wages are adequate enough to survive on.

[hispanichoosier]

But Americans will do any job if the wages are adequate enough to survive on.

Yeah, but the market won't pay the wages that Americans are demanding. That's not from the Left, that's straight out of Adam Smith.

[mthom]

The market + millions and millions of illegals you mean.

[hispanichoosier]

The market + millions and millions of illegals you mean.

That does bring up an interesting question. Are illegals coming to America because the market is only willing to pay a certain wage for a certain job, or is the market only willing to pay a certain wage because of the increased labor pool caused by illegals? I'll see if I can find any sort of data on that question.

[mthom]

More like illegals are coming here because the economies in their home countries push them out and when they get here they increase the labor pool thus driving down wages.

[austinite]

hispanicwhatever is no rocket scientist

[LNewman]

We have a very hard-working (and illegal) community of Lithuanians in our county.

LOOSE THEM! They are not legally qualified to "work hard" in our community. If they can't be 86'd, report their low-life employers. They are not slaves. Slavery was abolished aloooong time ago. If you have another agenda, you need to be clear about it. As you say, it is "interesting" that I would characterize a population as "Mexican." It is equally interesting that you would promote a "Hispanic" tag and offer Lithuanians on your sacrificial alter.

[TigersEye]

What's the question? Can a positive factor have a zero-sum effect on the equation?

[international american]

It is about 22-25 per hour with benefits. And this has nothing to do with the fact that the conractors do this because there is no chance they will be called on it by our government. If there was a stiff price to pay, they wouldn't do it.

[international american]

I am still waiting for you to respond to my post #29.

[investigateworld]

But is Adam Smith still valid?
In his day there was no transferring of societal cost's from those who ignored the laws to those who played by the rules. (Cause there wasn't any Soc. Sec., EPA, Work Comp, OSHA, but I could be wrong as I was very young then ;^)

[international american]

"And that's a law enforcement problem that needs to be addressed"

Law enforcement will not touch illegal immigration, and the Los Angeles police are under orders not to question if one is illegal. Doubt it? Call them yourself! I suspect you know this, and it is YOU who is evading the problem.

The backbreaking crap mantra by the liberal left is mostly fiction.

[raybbr]

Exactly. They appreciate the opportunities that America offers them more than many America-bashing liberals seem to.

There are millions around the world who have the same feelings. So, why is it that Bush only seems to want hispanics? I don't see him allowing Europeans, Asians and Africans in the way he has opened the door for hispanics. I know Poles and Romanians that work just as hard but I don't see Bush rushing to offer them the same free ride as he is the millions of hispanics who have jumped our borders.