Posted on 05/19/2007 4:41:50 PM PDT by radar101
Many in Mexico expressed disappointment Friday with the U.S. Congress' immigration reform proposal, arguing it doesn't let enough Mexicans enter the United States legally to work while focusing on an arduous path to residency for those who have already taken the illegal path.
Mexican news media and activists attacked what they viewed as a measure to limit the number of seasonal workers allowed into the United States — even as the compromise's proponents said it would let in many more.
Migrants as well as U.S. employers who need workers for low-skilled jobs had hoped Congress would streamline and vastly expand the existing guest worker program, allowing more people to cross legally, work a few months, then return home with their savings to build homes and businesses.
The new proposal did include a new guest worker program, but it appeared to limit the number of times workers could renew the temporary visas.
At the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, which hands out more temporary work visas than anywhere else in the world, Edmundo Bermudez, a 36-year-old from the northern city of Durango, was especially offended by reports that preference would be given to migrants with degrees and specialized skills.
"The United States already has enough people with college degrees. Who is going to cut their tobacco?" asked Bermudez, who has been working intermittently in the U.S. for the past eight years. In Mexico, he makes about $10 a day, while in the U.S. he earns $8 an hour.
The proposal, unveiled Thursday in Washington, focuses on securing the border and giving illegal residents a long, and, many argue, expensive path toward legal residency. Undocumented immigrants could seek lawful permanent residence once they pay $5,000 in fees and fines and their head of household returns to their home country.
It would also create a new temporary guest worker program that would hand out two-year "Y visas." Workers would be able to renew those visas up to three times, returning to Mexico for a year in between each stint. That apparently would be in addition to the current H2 program that lets migrants work part of the year in seasonal jobs.
Many in Mexico worry about the restrictions the new program could contain. Under the current guest worker program, many workers, like Bermudez, spend most of their adult life working part of each year in the U.S.
Mexican newspaper and television news broadcasts led with news of the proposal Friday, with El Universal newspaper headlines reading: "Immigration reform divides the United States" and "Latinos: It isn't what we hoped for."
Gilberto Escalante, a 41-year-old fisherman from Topolobampo in Sinaloa state, said the current guest worker program is better than the congressional plan because it gives Mexicans the option to freely enter and leave the U.S. while maintaining their lives in Mexico — instead of forcing them to choose between the two countries.
"We don't want the house or the latest car in the U.S. We want to go and work so that our families can have a good life in Mexico," said Escalante, who came to the industrial hub of Monterrey to apply for a visa to work on fish and shrimp boats off the coast of Mississippi.
Yet the congressional plan came as welcome news to the millions of Mexicans who depend on the $23 billion sent home each year by Mexicans living in the U.S., many illegally.
The proposal would allow illegal immigrants to obtain a "Z visa" and ultimately get on track for permanent residency, which could take between eight and 13 years. Heads of households would have to return to their home countries first.
It is also good news for the Mexican government, which has spent years lobbying the U.S. for a comprehensive immigration reform that allows more people to work legally in the U.S. Many had feared the U.S. would only approve more border security measures, such as adding to National Guard troops at the border and other high-tech security measures.
Victor Aviles, a spokesman for Mexico's Foreign Relations Department, cautiously welcomed the initiative.
"The Mexican government hopes that the different actors involved in the debate and eventual approval of this initiative take advantage of the opportunity it presents," he said in a statement.
Miguel Garcia, 35, of Maravatio in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, said he was glad that the U.S. was giving illegal migrants a chance at fixing their status.
"They shouldn't punish people who are just trying to get ahead," he said.
U.N. Official Urges U.S. To Protect Migrant Rights
A United Nations human rights expert urged the United States on Friday to enforce polices to protect the rights of migrants, as he wrapped up a nearly three-week U.S. tour focusing on the plight of migrants.
Jorge Bustamante, the U.N. Human Rights Council's independent expert on migrant rights, expressed concern that the United States has no central system for families to get information about loved ones arrested by immigration officials.
Bustamante, who is from Mexico, also said he was disappointed that U.S. officials canceled his planned visits to two detention centers. Although he visited another detention center, he said the cancellations were an obstacle to getting his job done.
"I didn't have any explanation," he told reporters of the cancellations.
Bustamante is expected to formally present his findings to the U.N. rights council in June.
During his 18-day visit, he toured the U.S. border with Mexico and watched U.S. immigration officials at work. He met with migrants and rights groups in several states and with U.S. officials from the Department of Homeland Security, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency and the State Department.
The visit, he said, showed migrants' worries about arbitrary detention, bad conditions at detention facilities and racial discrimination.
71 % say no
Good! Let’s cater to the Mexicans one last time and scrap the Kennedy-McCain Crap immigration reform in the Senate.
Why should America give a good crap what Mexicans think or laws in OUR country.
Tell them to blow it out their butts.
This calendar was distributed worldwide the year BEFORE
its predicted the murder of 3000 Americans per hour in the 911 Atrocities.
This is the month of September 2001. Note closely the skyline.
Like the open borders, it is ignored by the traitorous Congress.
This article is bs and so is the poll. Who in the heck knows what that bill says. It’s 700 pages and growing. One thing I am sure of it’s not good for America, except a few, of course.
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I’m with you.
I agree. McCain\Kennedy just isn’t fair to all the other Mexicans.I say scrap it and start over,and Congress take your time (like maybe 100 yrs.) on the next bill !!!
There must be something good about it if Mexico hates it.
Ffoooorrrccchhrrriiisssaaakkkeessss
Almost 1/5th of the population is already “residing” in the US illegally....
how many more can we handle?
Oh OK...if they object we agree. /s
No need. Smoking is VERBOTEN!!
LAWS
1.There will be no special bilingual programs in the schools,
no special ballots for elections, and all government
business will be conducted in our language.
2. Foreigners will NOT have the right to vote,
no matter how long they are here.
3. Foreigners will NEVER be able to hold political office.
4. Foreigners will not be a burden to the taxpayers.
No welfare, no food stamps, no health care,
nor any other government assistance programs.
5. Foreigners can invest in this country, but it must be
an amount equal to 40,000 times the daily minimum wage.
6. If foreigners do come and want to buy land that will be okay,
BUT options will be restricted. You are not allowed to own
waterfront property. That property is reserved for citizens
naturally born into this country.
7. Foreigners may not protest; no demonstrations, no waving
a foreign flag, no political organizing, no “bad-mouthing”
our president or his policies. If you do you will be sent
home.
8. If you do come to this country illegally, you will be
hunted down and sent straight to jail.
Harsh, you say?...
The above laws happen to be the
immigration laws of “ MEXICO “ !
I almost think all these stories about Mexico not liking this horrible immigration bill are to trick the American people into thinking the bill is good.
Odds are I could get 100,000 of them lined up within 6 months. In fact, I'm pretty sure I could arrange for documentation proving they'd each already gotten here before January 1, 2007 with absolutely no trouble.
A quarter-million of them would be a tad harder to handle, but these are some bright people and I'm sure they can outscam any number of Mexican coyotes if need be.
All I need are some contributors to moxie up the airfare!
Because many, if not most, Americans do not think in terms of countries (nation-states): they think in terms of "mankind" and the world "without borders." That is what it means to be a "progressive." If you keep telling a child that you are sorry you are putting him to bed at 9pm, the child will quickly conclude that he is entitled to stay up later: you yourself think that apparently, and that is why you are sorry.
We as a nation are doing exactly the same. When discussing immigrants and other matters we are constantly "sorry" for actually having borders, for differentiating citizens and non-citizens. Why should Mexicans, then, think in any other terms? Listen not to what Mexicans say --- that is just a symptom, not a cause --- but what we, Americans, say. The enemy is us.
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