Posted on 05/12/2005 5:55:18 PM PDT by JesseJane
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Global Policy Program
International Migration Policy Program /event
On February 15, 2001, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace International Migration Policy Program hosted a breakfast briefing featuring three members of the U.S.-Mexico Migration Panel, which released a report on February 14 to U.S. President George W. Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox including proposals to change and improve the relationship of the U.S. and Mexico regarding migration. Speakers included Demetri Papademetriou, Co-Director of the International Migration Policy Program and the U.S. Convenor of the panel; Frank Sharry, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum; and B. Lindsay Lowell, Director of Research at Georgetown University's Institute for the Study of International Migration. Deborah W. Meyers, Associate at the International Migration Policy Program, was the moderator.
Demetri Papademetriou commented on the general themes and goals of the panel. The panel avoided making detailed proposals which would only suffer the "death of a thousand cuts," like many proposals do in Washington. It is detailed enough to provide the main principles for discussion and policy and offers several broad ideas. The panel is trying to take advantage of the meeting on February 16 between Presidents Bush and Fox. Papademetriou emphasized that the panel's work is a truly bilateral effort. The report gives an image of how the panel visualizes a different relationship with Mexico and emphasizes the need for a package of integrated proposals and cooperative efforts between the two countries, rather than unilateral single-issue policies. It considers the confluence of economics, demographics, and politics on the issue of migration. In the area of politics, the two new presidents are both former governors and businessmen who understand that their economies are highly integrated and interdependent. Since 1994, two-way trade between the U.S. and Mexico has tripled; Mexico is the U.S.'s second largest trading partner. Labor markets are also integrated. Policy-makers must think regionally, starting with NAFTA. Papademetriou stated that if there is not a commitment to most of the ideas in the report, the policy cannot be successful in changing the terms of the debate over the U.S.-Mexico relationship. The panel has a firm conviction that the status quo has created a black market which undermines law enforcement and causes too many deaths. Frank Sharry spoke next. He said that the panel has been working on the report for six months and included a variety of perspectives. The panel's members wanted to ask if there was a way to refashion the debate about migration between the U.S. and Mexico. They also wanted their proposals to respond to reality. The panel's report calls on the U.S. and Mexico to craft a "grand bargain" that would be mutually beneficial, make migration safe, legal, orderly, and predictable, and decrease migratory pressures over time. The report calls for a reconceptualization of the border as a "line of convergence rather than a line of defense." Sharry listed the four main principles suggested by the panel to guide future discussions:
1. Improve the treatment of Mexican migrants by making legal visas and legal status more widely available and making legality the norm. The panel tried not to be very detailed and wanted to state premises to guide policy-making rather than promote specific policies. One way to make legality the norm is to institute legalizing mechanisms; some examples might be expanding and expediting family visas, expanding work visas, and implementing temporary worker programs. Temporary migration programs should be in response to measurable market needs and should meet certain criteria: equitable labor rights that can be meaningfully enforced, social and health protections, and reasonable options for temporary migrants who qualify to apply for permanent residency. The panel feels that only legalizing migrants in the U.S. or only providing more legal means for those who wish to come to the U.S. will perpetuate the unacceptable status quo; both must be addressed.
2. Call on Mexico to collaborate with the U.S. to reduce illegal migration. There should be cooperative efforts to crack down on smuggling organizations and work together to protect human rights in the border area.
3. Governments should work together to build a viable border region.
4. The long-term solution is the growth of the Mexican economy. Mexico has acknowledged that it must take primary responsibility for its development; however, the NAFTA partners and certain financial institutions should help. Remittance-based development programs are among options to reach this goal.
Sharry emphasized that picking and choosing the elements in the report is likely to undermine the overall effort's effectiveness. Lindsay Lowell said that it is an appropriate time for these issues to be addressed due in part to current and likely future demographics. The Mexican economy is growing rapidly and generating more jobs. Lowell said he sees three particularly important points in the report. The first is that it is a bilateral, grand bargain; the Mexican government is willing to make a change from its past non-involvement in the issue. Second, the report is a whole package whose elements must be taken together. Third, the report suggests incremental action; it is not recommending that the two governments open the border now.
Lowell said that the U.S. must deal with the Mexican migrant population already living in the U.S. There are many ways to address that issue; expanding family visas and work visas is something to discuss and may be among the ways to help solve the issue. The panel also calls for pilot temporary worker programs. The key is Mexico's greater cooperation; the report does not call for elimination of border controls but for an increase in cooperation of many types along the border. Human rights at the border are also important; there must be an effort to stop deaths at the border. The U.S. should facilitate the flow of legal migration. Also, Mexican economic development is important; remittances alone cannot accomplish it, and certain banks and microcredit organizations should be involved.
Meyers said that the U.S. has two neighbors and must consider how these policies affect Canada, as well. The report proposes equal treatment for Mexico and Canada and special treatment for both countries; perhaps Mexico and Canada should be exempt from the normal immigration formula
Summary by Kerry Boyd
We see banks and govt. orgs involved in the give aways, now. Sickening. What a fraud on the USA!
International Migration Policy Program http://www.impprog.ch/ Study of International Migration http://www.georgetown.edu/sfs/programs/isim/
True.
[Snicker.] This would require Mexico to (1) reduce corruption, and (2) decide they no longer require the multiplied millions of dollars that illegal immigrants send back to Mexico.
Well s**t.
I'm starting to get the impression our government wants to CREATE a humanitarian crisis here in the US. Maybe create a plague to get a little plague relief money and save the right folks.. ?? Sheese.. I mean they're not at all concerned about the new strain of TB that's flowing in, or previously unseen viruses, I better step away from the tinfoil drawer.
Well s**t.
I'm starting to get the impression our government wants to CREATE a humanitarian crisis here in the US. Maybe create a plague to get a little plague relief money and save the right folks.. ?? Sheese.. I mean they're not at all concerned about the new strain of TB that's flowing in, or previously unseen viruses, I better step away from the tinfoil drawer.
The Illegal Alien Swing Vote
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=15694
How many generations would it take to
"reduce the corruption", I wonder?
True.. I know they are deeply concerned about the rule of law too./s :)
doing good jesse
Longer than I'll be alive, surely. Corruption is endemic in the system I suspect. I wonder if their government and commerce could even exist without it.
That's why all this talk of integration, lately, is so sickening. It can only mean our elected are just as corrupt.
Thanks much S/F!! :)
Who Will Watch the Watchers? (FTAA)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1420670/posts
Imagine this: your state government puts a transportation corridor in your neighborhood. It’s nearly a quarter-mile wide. It will serve vehicles and trains and incorporate oil, gas, electric and water lines. Try to fight it and you’ll not only face the combined might of your local, state, and federal governments, but foreign interests as well. The internationalization of U.S. roads has begun.
We’re not just talking about isolated instances of privately-built toll roads with foreign management, as we’ve seen in Southern California. We’re talking about networks of toll roads that may be built by foreign builders, managed by foreign operators, function primarily to accommodate foreign goods, and connect U.S. roads to similar networks in Canada, Mexico and, later, Central and South America.
Interstate 69, for example, is a planned 1600 mile national highway connecting Mexico, the U.S., and Canada. Eight states are involved in the project: Once completed, I-69 will extend from Port Huron, Michigan to the Texas/Mexico border.
In Texas, I-69 will be part of the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) project – a 4000 mile network of existing and new toll roads – which will create the largest private highway system in America. Interstate 35, also called the Oklahoma to Mexico/Gulf Coast element, will be developed as part of the TTC. [snip]
Not only did the Bush Administration bless the project, but the Federal Highway Administration announced in March 2004 that the first segment of the TTC had been granted “experimental project status” and construction could begin before the environmental study was complete. Work could start even before public hearings were completed.
Three months later, the Republican Party of Texas adopted as part of its platform the following statement: “Because there are issues of confiscation of private land, State and National sovereignty . . . , the Party urges the repeal of (legislation) authorizing the Trans-Texas Corridor. Further, we urge the removal of all authorization and powers granted the Texas Transportation Commission and the Texas Department of Transportation for the construction and operation of the Trans-Texas Corridor.” [snip]
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/washington/stories/071305dnintmexico.c9963a.html
He warns Congress that cooperation on security is at stake
07:34 PM CDT on Tuesday, July 12, 2005
By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT / The Dallas Morning News
WASHINGTON – While Mexico has enhanced security since the Sept. 11 attacks, future cooperation hinges on U.S. willingness to liberalize its immigration policies, former Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda warned Congress on Tuesday.
Mr. Castañeda, who is running as an independent in the 2006 presidential race, said security must be twinned with what he called the "whole enchilada" – legalization for the 6 million Mexicans living here illegally, visas for Mexicans desiring to come here in the future, and economic development for impoverished interior regions responsible for the exodus.
"There can be no future cooperation beyond what already exists without some form of immigration package," he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during a border security hearing.
Just as immigration is a volatile topic in the U.S., Mr. Castañeda said the idea of enhanced U.S.-Mexican cooperation on security issues, such as military-to-military involvement, is "very, very sensitive" to Mexicans.
"It is not easy for any Mexican government to move forward on that," he said. "It can be done in a package. If it's done in a sort of salami-type arrangement – slice by slice – I'm not sure it's going to work."
But Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., pointed to the difficulties inherent in enacting a massive immigration-and-security package and instead suggested that both countries tackle measured "confidence-building" steps.
"I can't agree with you that we have to do this in totality," Mr. Dodd said. "As a practical matter, it's just very difficult to anticipate Congress adopting large comprehensive proposals."
The Senate Judiciary Committee on July 27 will consider rival proposals that would create guest worker programs for many of the estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants of all nationalities already here. One, by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., would provide a path to citizenship after six years as a guest worker. The other, being drafted by GOP Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Jon Kyl of Arizona, would require the guest workers to return home when their visas expire.
Both bills include enhanced border security measures but fall short of the expansive framework advanced by Mr. Castañeda.
The former Mexican official, who resigned from President Vicente Fox's Cabinet in 2003, acknowledged that Mexico must do more to crack down on organized crime gangs operating with near impunity along the Southwest border. He also spoke of the need for Mexico to control its southern border, which Central Americans and other foreigners cross en route to the U.S.
"More and more people in Mexico today understand that our southern border has to be brought back under control," he said. "We are having enormous problems with the Salvadoran gangs, the Mara Salvatrucha, in southern Mexico. We are having enormous problems with prostitution [and] drugs on our southern border."
The U.S. is confronted with a rising wave of foreigners using Mexico as a platform to cross illegally into the U.S., Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar testified.
The Border Patrol is on pace to apprehend 148,000 non-Mexican illegal immigrants this year – nearly twice the 75,000 arrested last year, he said. As many as 4,000 non-Mexicans arrested this year are from Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq and other countries known to harbor terrorists, said Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Dick Lugar, R-Ind.
I sure hope BP Chief Aguilar realizes MEXICANS are foreigners - at least for the moment.
I called Chief Aguilar today and was told he was testifying before Congress. Thanks for the report JJ.
Mr. Castañeda, ... said security must be twinned with what he called the "whole enchilada"
Just as immigration is a volatile topic in the U.S., Mr. Castañeda said the idea of enhanced U.S.-Mexican cooperation on security issues, such as military-to-military involvement, is "very, very sensitive" to Mexicans.
Is he afraid we may put the military on the border, so as to circumvent that, they demand to be involved in our right to protect our border? That's what it sounds like to me. It also begs the questions, WHAT security issues has Mexico thus far been interested in as it relates to American national security. They have not supported the WOT in the slightest, so why would we want their input to OUR policies.
Synopsis:
Former Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda warned Congress on Tuesday that if America doesn't give Mexico 100% of everything that it wants then they will continue to take whatever it wants without the permission or approval of the US Voter, US Congress, the US Senate or anyone else who might be ticked at their former and current behavior.
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