Posted on 11/04/2003 8:02:04 PM PST by sarcasm
PHOENIX (Reuters) - Mexican President Vicente Fox began a visit to three U.S. border states on Tuesday by pushing for immigration reform and measures to protect illegal migrants from dying in the border's deserts.
Fox said he discussed with Arizona Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano ways to make the border crossing safer for the thousands of people who trek across the Sonoran Desert into Arizona every day.
``We spoke about how Arizona has become a very complicated, and sometimes very violent, entry point for migration, and we tried to find a mechanism to avoid this and avoid the possible deaths of Mexicans,'' Fox told reporters after the meeting.
At least 346 migrants, mostly Mexicans, died crossing into the United States in the 12 months ending in September, U.S. officials say.
After the U.S. government launched the ``Operation Gatekeeper'' crackdown on illegal immigration eight years ago, large numbers of migrants began crossing the desert because fewer border agents patrol that remote area.
Arizona is the most dangerous crossing point because temperatures can soar well above 140 degrees on its desert floor.
Last year, eight migrants were murdered and their bodies dumped at the foot of the White Tank Mountains near Phoenix.
Officials say the victims could have been killed in a turf battle between drug cartels, but many Mexicans suspect armed vigilante groups who patrol the Arizona border to catch illegal migrants and hand them over to the government.
``Mexico has had to pay a very high price, and we immigrants have paid it,'' one migrant from the border state of Chihuahua told Fox later in a meeting with some 3,000 migrants.
Outside that meeting some 20 protesters carried placards reading ``Amnesty is insanity,'' referring to proposals to legalize immigrants' status.
``Illegal immigrants are criminals who should be treated as such,'' one protester shouted.
The deaths, and the treatment of illegal migrants by U.S. officials, are sensitive issues in Mexico. Any success in better protecting migrants or winning a reform of U.S. immigration policy would be a major political victory for Fox.
FOX VISITING THREE STATES
Fox is visiting Arizona, New Mexico and Texas this week to press his campaign for U.S. immigration reform, hoping to win over governors and state legislators as a way of building support for change at the federal level. All three states have large Mexican populations.
Supporters of immigration reform say U.S. agriculture and other industries would face severe labor shortages if it were not for migrant workers. There are several bills in Congress aimed at reforming U.S. immigration law, including proposals to grant temporary ``guest worker'' visas to millions of migrants.
Fox wants broader reform to legalize the status of millions of Mexicans already living and working in the United States.
On the eve of this week's visit, however, he made clear he was now taking a step-by-step approach rather than the aggressive stance adopted early in his government.
Mexico's hopes for sweeping changes to U.S. immigration laws collapsed with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon. Washington responded by tightening the border and launching its declared war on terror.
Relations between Bush and Fox then soured early this year when Mexico joined France and Germany in opposing U.S. attempts to win U.N. Security Council support for an invasion of Iraq.
After months of tension, the two recently agreed to start talking again and immigration reform is now back on the agenda, although both sides now say they will move cautiously.
I know that perception is reality, but come one! Printing this just reinforces that skewed perception! The Border Volunteers operate in a 10-15 mile band north of the International Border. The base of the White Tanks is over 200 miles north of there.
Do Mexicans also feel the I-10 shootout yesterday was perpetrated by the so-called vigilantes? Gimme a break.
In the interest of being 'fair & balanced' it would be appropriate to publish the number of Americans murdered or otherwise killed by illegals during the same period.
Under the agreement made when Texas joined the Union, we can subdivide into five separate states.
I propose that Texas divide into two states - North Texas and South Texas with South Texas being south of a line on the Gulf of Mexico at Port O'Conner, extending west to Victoria, across to San Antonio and then to Del Rio.
Once the division has occurred, I propose that we GIVE South Texas to Mexico.
At that time all welfare programs, including WIC and Lone Star Cards, would come to an end because the inhabitants of South Texas would no longer be US citizens.
I propose that we use those tax dollars saved to build a fence across the new border with ports of entry only on major highways, and allow the Texas Militia to patrol that fence.
Like I said, it's time to face reality.
South Texas has been absorbed. It's time to give it up and save some tax dollars.
By the way - nice to see you......hope all is well with you......
Oh, well, a cowboy can dream........
A fence would stop them if we were serious about stopping them, but it's been a long time since America was serious about any of it's undertakings with foreign aggressors.
We weren't serious in VietNam, and we're not serious in Iraq.
We want the world to see us as the "nice guys", and, as usual, "nice guys" come in last.
That's already happening --- as more and more of Mexico pushes north into Texas, the people from the southern counties or Texas are leaving and heading north to get back into the USA --- and Mexico then pushes further north trying to follow prosperity as it leaves the border region. They've even had to expand what are called "border counties" ---- those are no longer the counties that immediately line the border --- the border counties are now several counties north.
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