Posted on 05/13/2005 2:29:12 PM PDT by 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.
Yes it was 1 Billion dollars of our TAX money -- for illegal ALiens!! Time for a march on Washington!!! This is pure BS!!!
Tough border laws????
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Be Ever Vigilant!
Minutemen Patriots ~ Bump!
Mexico pissed ? GOOD.
“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.”
What did I miss... I didn't know that there was a "new understanding" that Bush proported. Could he mean Open Borders and Amnesty? Not!!!!
“Building walls doesn't help anyone build a good neighbourhood,”
I have a wall around my house, what is he thinking this is common for California, most every neighbor here has a wall around their home. You would think this guy was from the north east or something. Homes in the north east I have seen have no walls. Funny thing here in California those who have the most walls, neighborhoods with brick and iron gates out to the street surrounding their yards are usually Hispanic !
You and what army? BRING IT.
"Good fences make good neighbors" or so says Robert Frost
Sauron snarls...
I wonder why the American people were never told about this new understanding? President Bush mentioned immigration once in February of 2004 and the reaction from his base was so virulent that he did not mention it again until one sentence in the third debate.
This Mexican must be under the mistaken impression that the USA is a dictatorship like Mexico.
I have to wonder what kind of agreements Bush and Fox have that makes Fox think he can go to these courts. Could it be that Bush is breaking some of these agreements. All of these meetings that Bush and Fox have are secret to the American taxpayer. I have never read NAFTA fully, but an agreement could very well be in NAFTA.
As Robert Frost said, "Good fences make good neighbors."
Except for his southern border of course.
Bush has gone out of his way to be nice to Vincente Fox ever since he was elected. And Vincent Fox has done nothing but make trouble for Bush ever since he was elected.
Bush needs to stay on the right side of Mexican American voters, or they will go back to voting for the Democrats. Other than that, he has absolutely no reason to worry about displeasing Fox.
I may be wrong, but it seems to me that Bush could tackle the Hispanic voter problem by clearly distinguishing between Mexican American citizens and Mexican illegals. Although it must be said that Pete Wilson tried to do that and lost California as a result.
Oh My! [handwringing]
We have upset Vincente!
Oh mercy! Quick! Open the borders! We don't want Vincente mad at us!
[GW and Congress needs to open their eyes. Another major terrorist attack due to the lax border control, and GW and Congress will get early retirement as their legacies.]
I'm with you -- if the Real ID makes Fox furious, I am all for it. And it provides for building a wall too?? HellO, finally.
I am totally against this as it would grant legal status to 11 million illegals. We have laws... let these people come into this county legally or not at all.
Asking the Border Patrol to stand down or ignore a criminal act is like asking the Coast Guard to ignore that drug boat... one more won't hurt. W had better get himself some new advisors on this subject before the makes Border Patrol and Coast Guard irrelevant.
Maybe they'll boycott us and cut off our supply of willing hardworkers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.