Just one part of the Arizona border, for one month. And it had nothing to do with the federal govt.
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.''
Bingo.
Just one part of the Arizona border, for one month. And it had nothing to do with the federal govt.
Only immediately after we've clobbered the crap out of them. Sounds like we're due for another correction.
I prefer the new non-stick tin foil. I agree with you on the liberal part but I don't know any REAL conservatives that want it that way.
Illegals and inner-city welfare cases are the cannon fodder of election fraud.
Controlling cote fraud is worth five Senate seats and 8 more years of a Republican President.
Failure? We all be Hillary's bitch.
california college instructors are ... weird.
for example, i was telling one about the observations of a u.s. military helicopter pilot. the instructor said, "you can't trust military people".
honest.
President Fox, if you really respect the sovereignty of the United States then there is no reason for even discussing this topic.
"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."
The global Socialists want us to be equal with our neighbors.
Well, yes and no. Deportees have the chance to tell others contemplating crossing the border, "that's a bad idea", whereas "dead men tell no tales"...
Yet they will take the word of "anonymous" or AQ terrorists about korans in toilets, no question.
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.
D'eese guys is pretty astupe. No wonder they get to run a big place like Mexico.
I don't know of President Bush is a REAL conservative but while I'm glad he was our President on 9/11 I've truly and definitely lost faith in him on the illegal aliens issue.
He's so full of cr@p
This article begs a question. If the immigrants are such good, hardworking people, then why are their local and federal government so anxious to lose them??
Well, he can't wave a wand and fix everything at one time. I think proving legal status before someone can get a license is a pretty big step.
His frustration will never equal the frustration I have with our leaders making citizenship nothing more than a lottery ticket with millions of winners each year.
America is just about cooked. When you get to the "Jobs that Americans don't want", and how it is good for America to let millions of peasants walking and suck money out of my wallet to help some landscaper buy a shore house.
This is the end of the America that I grew up in.
Since when haven't Mexicans and other peoples been allowed to come to this country to work legally? Woman must have wrote this sentence in her sleep.
Hey, Suzanna, Mexicans can come here to work legally now, it is the illegals we have the problem with.
Laugh!
You probably even have a 70 year old security guard at the gate that waves as you drive in.
No it isn't.
But Mr. Fox, you have not exhibited any traits that show you are a good friend or a good neighbor. If you had, we would not have had to take such measures.
PS Mr. Fox, good neighboring countries would not advocate and encourage their citizens to break neighboring countries laws and aid and abet them in doing so.
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