Mexico furious at tough US law on migrants

Financial Times ^ | May 13 2005 | John Authers in Mexico City and Edward Alden in Washington

[seastay]

Mexico has reacted furiously to a bill signed into law by the US this week that would fund a border wall and prevent illegal Mexican migrants from obtaining US driving licences.

President Vicente Fox said he would lodge a diplomatic complaint, and was considering complaints to multilateral bodies if Mexico could not unable to resolve the problem bilaterally.

In the US, leaders of the Mexican community threatened to strike to send a message to US employers that they could not survive without cheap Mexican labour.

Santiago Creel, Mexico's interior secretary, said the “Real ID” law was “negative, inconvenient, and obstructionist”.

“Building walls doesn't help anyone build a good neighbourhood,” he said. “Taking away the possibility of obtaining driving licences for people who are working in legal jobs, who pay their taxes there, who send remittances home here, seems to us to be an extreme measure, particularly given the new understanding that we thought we had after the re-election of President Bush.”

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, mayor of Mexico City, supported Mr Fox's stance. He said the problem of growing immigration could be “resolved by encouraging development in Mexico and Central America, not by building walls and using the border control”.

Since 2002, Mexico has adopted a popular policy of issuing undocumented labourers with consular identity cards, which are accepted as proof of identity by many US states for issuing driving licences, and for opening bank accounts. Under the new law, this would no longer be possible. The immigration provisions approved by Congress were attached by House Republicans to a bill that will provide more than $80bn for the war in Iraq this year, giving lawmakers little choice but to support it.

The White House, which at first opposed the new restrictions, supported them when it became clear they would pass Congress in spite of administration opposition.

President George W. Bush has said he wants to deal with illegal immigration by creating a temporary guest worker programme. But many Republicans are using the anxiety about terrorism to push for a crackdown on illegal immigrants.

[Smartass]

Aztlan, wants Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, and half of Colorado. When and if this every occurs, won't be a laughing matter.

[bitt]

it's all about oil.

[Happy2BMe]

"Aztlan, wants Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, and half of Colorado. When and if this every occurs, won't be a laughing matter."

=============================

Antonio Villaraigosa: Alcalde de Los Angeles?

by
Hector Carreon
La Voz de Aztlan

Los Angeles, Alta California - May 13, 2005 - (ACN) "EL Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de Los Angeles" may again have a mayor (alcalde) of Mexican descent after more than 133 years. Antonio Villaraigosa, a former student leader of the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA) at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), may take over the mayor's office of the second largest city in the country on Tuesday. According to the polls, Antonio Villaraigosa is on the average 12 points ahead of incumbent Mayor James Hahn with only 4 days left before voting day.

Los Angeles was founded in 1781 by Mexican families primarily from Sinaloa, Sonora and Jalisco. From 1781 to 1822 all of the mayors were born in Mexico but from 1823 to 1848 they were mostly native Angelinos, sons of Mexican families who owned vast "Ranchos" in the area. The first white occupation mayor was a migrant from Missouri by the name of Stephen Foster. Foster commenced his term as mayor in 1848, the year when the Mexican-American War ended, and one year before Alta California was invaded by hordes of whites looking for gold. The "Gold Rush 49ers" were mostly unsavory characters. They were foul-mouth rowdy thiefs and gamblers from the east who negatively transformed the peaceful culture of the region. Their effect on the local culture is today immortalized on a City of Baldwin Park public monument with the inscribed words, "It was better before they came".

During the tumultus 24 years following the war, white efforts to consolidate their political power and control of the land, resulted in the election of 12 white mayors and only 4 Mexican-Americans. The last Los Angeles mayor of Mexican descent was Cristobal Aguilar who completed his term in 1872. That was 133 years ago. Antonio Villaraigosa hopes to reverse the trend on Tuesday.

Mexican-American voters are "all fired up" for Tuesday's election. MEChA's slogan, "Los Angeles Today, Alta California Tomorrow" is destined to become reality. No, there is no need for whites to start packing their luggage to leave Los Angeles even though many have already done on their own free will. Among those who have left are felon Chris Simcox of the Tombstone Vigilantes and Glenn Spencer of the American Border Patrol which is another vigilante group operating along the Mexico/Arizona border. Both left Los Angeles after they could no longer tolerate living among millions of Mexicans. Good riddance and we wish all of their ilk will leave the city and the state. This includes many of the hate radio jocks in Los Angeles especially those at KABC and KFI.

The Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA) has done wonders concerning the political re-empowerment of La Raza. The organization's opening of the doors to higher education through student recruitment, politicalization and the formation of Mexican-American study programs has created a very effective cadre of leaders with the will power and know how to do what has to be done. There are now numerous MEChA alumni at all levels of government and one, Cruz Bustamante, came very close to defeating the immigrant from Austria, Arnold Schwarzenegger, for the governorship of the state. The last Mexican governor of Alta California was Pio de Jesus Pico. Governor Pio Pico was forced to flea to Mexico in 1846 by US occupation military forces. The election of a governor of Mexican descent in Alta California is just a matter of time.

The election of Antonio Villaraigosa will have national significance. Mexican-Americans are the fastest growing ethnic group in the US and Latinos as a whole now make the largest minority. In Los Angeles, a left-labor coalition reigns king in politics and is a model now being used in other regions of the southwest. Labor, composed of large numbers of Mexican-Americans, will transform the political landscape of the southwest. Also, an aging and unproductive white population is a major factor in the ongoing transformation. The white population, primarily paper-pushers, are loosing their grip on political power. One perfect example within this element are some white hate radio jocks who make a living by using their mouths to blurt ethnic hate. They produce nothing concrete of value. They produce no food, shelter, or clothing but only pollute the airwaves with their broadcasts.

A large and vigorous turnout of Labor on Tuesday will assure the election of Antonio Villaraigosa. La Voz de Aztlan compliments Antonio Villaraigosa for never repudiating MEChA under the intense pressure exerted by the English language media. The example set by Cruz Bustamante is noble and Antonio Villaraigosa is to be commended for his courageous resistance.

On Tuesday, flags may be flying and autos seen with bumper stickers saying, "Los Angeles Today, Alta California Tomorrow". God Bless Aztlan!

[Smartass]

The Mexico, U.S. wall isw a joke.
The Minutemen proved that eyes work then a dumb wall.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

We just got back from the local police department. It seems that one of the "Little One's" came to America and printed some checks with our account number. Continuing to do those tasks that Americans will not do the "Little One" had a false drivers license and a false telephone number. The hardworking "Little One" then cashed about $2,000 in checks. The officer at the desk was quite blase' saying "Oh it happens all the time!" I have converted; Let us give them all amnesty! Love! Tolerance! A Big Tent! Room at the Table! How Long!

[Tax Government]

The wall is a great idea...made greater by Fox's absurd opposition to it.

[texastoo]

They have already taken over down here. We are known as the gateway for illegal drugs. The government pumps in over a billion a year for this place to survive.

[Happy2BMe]

[Travis McGee]

CW2, on the horizon and coming fast.

[Serenissima Venezia]

I just wish the federal funds the hospitals got also were tied to reductions in foreign aid to the countries of origin of the illegals.

Now that is a solution I could go for.

[paul_fromatlanta]

I'm not nearly as hard nosed on illegal immigration as most here....

But if Fox is going say things like this
>>President Vicente Fox said he would lodge a diplomatic complaint, and was considering complaints to multilateral bodies if Mexico could not unable to resolve the problem bilaterally.<<

I have a real hard time not just feeling like "well, to hell with him."

But..I try to give the President credit - he governed Texas and I've never lived closer to the border than Georgia...I know he thinks highly of Fox.

[DoughtyOne]

“Building walls doesn't help anyone build a good neighbourhood,” he said.

As if what's happening to our neighborhoods now, was a good way to build them. Well I guess it could be if you like freeway shootings, rapes, child molestation, dead cops, dead kids caught in the gang crossfire, run down schools, trauma centers and other E.R.s closing, healthcare on the ropes, response times increased for emergency medical response, crumbling infrastucture... eh, I grow weary listing the thousands of negative things illegal immigration does to our nation.

Santiago Creel is free to say what he wants, but I'm free to say that his opinion on this came right out of his ---, where his brain must spend most of it's time.

[NewRomeTacitus]

I recall a time in America when just one or two of the atrocities you listed would have created a huge uproar. Now the nation has been numbed by it's unceasing inundation. The MSM has done an excellent job anesthetizing the targeted prey for the kill.

Hadn't seen you in a while, Doughty. It's starting to look like Last Civil War Vets around here sometimes, though a lot of new folks have signed on due to the fantastic success of the Minuteman Project. It all comes down to people who care.

[Ultra Sonic]

Mexican border ping.

[paul_fromatlanta]

>>"Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down!" I could say "Elves" to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there,
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors." <<

Robert Frost
http://www.bartleby.com/104/64.html

[dmanLA]

Driver’s licenses in Mexico are issued by the 31 states and the Federal District, with laws regulating identity requirements for those applying in each state being strict.

Typical are the regulations of Baja California, the contiguous state with California. In order to obtain a regular Baja California driver’s license the applicant must know how to read and write, be over the age of 18 (“student licenses” are available for those over 16), and they must show an official photo and signed ID. Those forms of identification accepted include a Mexican passport, a federal or state voter’s ID or military identification.

Furthermore, applicants must demonstrate proof of residency through electricity, water, telephone and property tax bills that are less than one month old. They must also have a health certificate no less than one month old. And of course they must pass the requisite written and driving tests.

So what are they so mad about? We are just doing what they are doing. Actually, it's still easier in the US. We don't require them to speak English or get a health exam!

[Loud Mime]

If Fox did a decent job of running his own friggin' country the people would want to stay there....

Take the Fox Ferry to Cuba...

[dcwusmc]

Sent the following email to Vicente Fox and Santiago Creel:

Mr. Fox and your buddy, Mr. Creel:

The border of the United States of America denotes a whole different country, one which is NOT Mexico. Your blatant disregard for that border makes you, in my opinion as a retired United States Marine, the ENEMY of my country. I firmly believe that one of these days we will formally be at war, and that due solely to your actions in encouraging your people to INVADE my country, violating our borders and BREAKING OUR LAWS. It may take a little while until we get Bush out of office, but I think it will happen unless you STOP your invasion of another SOVEREIGN NATION. (You may recall the war between Mexico and the United States in 1846-48 and just who won it. That is where the first line in the U.S. Marine Corps Hymn comes from: The Halls of Montezuma.)

It's a pity, really, for most of the Mexican people I know are extremely nice. However, YOU two are as evil as anyone I can think of and it is my fond hope and prayer that your people will not only remove you from your political offices but put you on trial and in prison for the crimes you have committed, both against my country and against your own country and countrymen.

[NRA2BFree]

Can you believe the nerve of this idiot???? Who the hell does he think he is? This is OUR country and Mexico has NO say in it, and if the Mexicans in OUR country don't like it, they can go back to Mexico!!!