Posted on 05/22/2005 7:08:57 AM PDT by nuconvert
Mexico outraged at U.S. as border gets tighter
Mexican President Vicente Fox was hoping that U.S. immigration policy would become more lenient. The opposite has occurred.
BY SUSANA HAYWARD
MEXICO CITY - When President Vicente Fox came into office in late 2000, he hoped his legacy would be U.S. immigration revisions that would allow Mexicans to cross the border into the United States and work legally.
Now, that vision is crumbling in the face of legislation President Bush signed earlier this month that authorizes the construction of more walls along the border and in effect invalidates Mexico-issued ID cards for Mexicans living in the United States.
Fox is pledging to continue his efforts for migrants until his term ends in December 2006. But officials are angry and disheartened at what they see as walls going up between the United States and Mexico instead of coming down.
Fox's government is planning to send a diplomatic protest over the law, the first the country has ever formally presented to the United States.
Fox expressed his anger in a recent speech: ``I respect the sovereignty of the United States and its freedom to take such decisions and measures, but frankly it's not the right approach between friends and neighbors.''
Much of the news coverage of his comments focused on the racial overtones of his defense of Mexican migrants' role in the U.S. economy -- he said Mexicans ''are doing jobs that not even blacks want to do.'' The Mexican government eventually apologized for offending African-Americans.
FRUSTRATION
But the comments underlined Fox's frustration and anxiety at the passage of the so-called Real ID Act, which was attached to an $82 billion spending bill to pay for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The legislation requires that ID cards meet strict federal requirements in three years if they'll be used to request U.S. government services or board an airliner. It also allows the Homeland Security Department to construct a second wall and other barriers around the 150-foot metal wall that's along the border between Tijuana and San Diego.
It wasn't supposed to turn out this way. A rancher and former governor of Guanajuato state, Fox made immigration a top priority. During his campaigns, he promised to fight for an open border and for legalizing Mexicans in the United States. He expected Bush, also a former governor with a ranch, to be an ally.
Fox and Bush began a close relationship after they took office, Fox in December 2000 and Bush a month later. They vowed to enrich ties and work on legalizing or giving amnesty to at least 4 million Mexicans and other undocumented workers in the U.S.
But a chill followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Bush didn't push an immigration accord. Fox didn't support the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Last year, there was renewed optimism when Bush proposed a program to allow temporary workers, similar to guest programs of the past. But it's lingered in Congress.
Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and John McCain, R-Ariz., introduced a bill earlier this month that would allow immigrants to seek legal status after living in the United States for three years, but its passage is considered an uphill battle.
Immigration is the one political constant in Mexico, ahead of next year's July presidential elections. Even Fox's worst political enemies agree with his criticism of the United States. Mexico City Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the left-of-center Democratic Revolutionary Party, the favorite to succeed Fox, said the United States should help Mexico create jobs, not build walls.
UNITED PROTEST
Others agree, calling for a ``united, nonpartisan protest.''
''This is an anti-immigration campaign without precedent. It's Mexico against Republicans, [Calif. Gov. Arnold] Schwarzenegger, the Minutemen in Arizona, Bush's entire Cabinet,'' said Primitivo Rodriguez, a Mexican political scientist who specializes in immigration and is working to pass a bill here that would allow Mexicans abroad to vote in the 2006 elections.
The anger over the U.S. legislation is such that diplomatic protests are only one of the plans. Mexican community leaders have advocated going on strike to prove that U.S. employers couldn't survive without cheap Mexican labor.
''These measures are myopic, racist and xenophobic,'' said Amalia Garcia, the left-of-center governor of Zacatecas state, which has one of the country's highest emigration rates. ``Building walls and preventing migrants from getting a driver's license don't solve any security problems.''
D dam. Every one of the Mexican officials quoted acts like United States should do as they please. It's the kind of attitude that just hisses us off even more.
If it were only Mexican land we were talking about, I'd agree with you. But unfortunately over 100 million Mexicans would be involved in this equation, most of whom have have political views and cultural attitudes that are at odds with the current American electorate. Our country would be changed irrecoverably. ....and for the worse.
"I'm firmly convinced that there is a core of people (both liberal and conservative) whose goal is to turn the USA into a third world country."
Total agreement here.
Well, there are some exceptions to that. But my current home has all of that around it. A gated community, so to speak. ;-)
That being said, I've always thought Vicente was a slimebag for trying to pawn his poverty-stricken and his criminals off on us. That's his responsibility and he wanted the U.S. to be saddled with it. He acts as though it's some obligation on our part.
Precisely. ....a distinction that many can't seem to comprehend. To them, the Berlin wall (a wall designed to keep a populace enslaved within) is the equivalent of the security fences the Israelis are building (which are designed to keep criminals/terrorists out).
Anytime Vincente is mad about the border we must be doing something right. This guy looks out his window and knows that one of these days the privilaged elete in Mexico are going to pay and pay dearly for holding their people in poverty. Without the USA as his safety valve he is threatened and knows it.
I have heard stories of the efforts they put out to protect her southern borders from illegal emigrants from entering Mexico.
Fox knows exactly what he and his government doing by sending diseased people out of his country into the United States it solves at least two problems. Reduces the risk of a revolt from a population that is kept in permanent poverty by a corrupt government. The second reason is they have grown to depend on the flow of dollars from the illegals in the US to their families in Mexico.
Fox has forgotten the first rule of any relationship, both sides must benefit. The United States gains nothing by having illegal workers, many working outside the law and taxes, taking jobs from citizens and using public resources.
On top of all that, there is the criminal aspect. It is possible for Mexicans to commit crimes up to and including murder and if they make it back across the Mexican border are all but immune to prosecution.
Before I have any sympathy for the plight of the illegal in general, and our sour relationship with Mexico, they need to answer me one question, how does the United States benefit with the status quo?
" I have seen nor heard of any effort that the Mexican government has done anything to slow the flow of illegal emigrants from crossing north into the United States."
In fact, quite the opposite.
You left out guard towers, with signs that read, in Spanish: "TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT! SURVIVORS WILL BE PROSECUTED, THEN DEPORTED!"
The title is quite misleading. The border is not tighter. This article is a ruse to make those upset with the illegal situation feel better. With that said, to get rid of these parasites make it illegal to send money out of the country, fine and jail those caught hiring them, when they are caught within our borders detain them until you have enough for a plane load, build a friggin fence.
The border has gotten tighter? Where?
Outstanding! Only he has ten million sons.
I believe that too. The top 1% live like maharajas and princes in third world countries.
"TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT! SURVIVORS WILL BE PROSECUTED, THEN DEPORTED!"
Nah, SURVIVORS WILL BE SHOT AGAIN!!!
How about the children of career military stationed in California, who have to pay 4 times more for a state college education than illegal aliens? Grrrrrrr!!!!!
In fact, quite the opposite.
No kiddin'. I recall the "How to Cross the Border" comic book the Mex gov put out.
As our Quislings and false flag freepers often try to tell us.
Coulda fooled me. I was driving behind a pickup truck overflowing with Mexicans - must have been at least a dozen in the truck - just outside of DC, a few days ago. Passed a cop car, he didn't blink an eye.
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.