Posted on 01/04/2006 10:18:39 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
NUEVO LAREDO - At the international line dividing Mexico and the United States, a handful of Mexican nationals and officials representing two Mexican political parties protested Tuesday against a proposal to build a fence between the two countries.
The protesters blasted President Bush and members of Congress for supporting the proposal, which was approved by the U.S. House last month and now awaits action in the Senate.
Six of the protesters at International Bridge I used a bullhorn to shout their messages to pedestrians and vehicle traffic crossing the bridge at about noon.
They referred to the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol's policies as "xenophobic" and bitterly condemned the actions of a Border Patrol agent they say killed an 18-year-old as he tried to cross illegally into the United States near San Diego, Calif.
After the young man was shot by the agent, Mexican officials said, he went back to Tijuana, where he later died.
U.S. officials have said the agent fired because he feared for his life, and that it's unclear whether the teen's death was actually the result of the U.S. gunfire.
Closer to home, the Nuevo Laredo protesters alleged, Border Patrol agents in a helicopter recently came too close to a man trying to cross the Rio Grande illegally in an inner tube. The inner tube overturned and the man drowned.
Miguel Angel Almaráz, state director of the Revolutionary Democratic Party, and Valentín Salazar of the Convergence Party, as well as Francisco Chavira, Jaime Bulas and Carlos Cabeza, called the proposed fence a "fence of shame" and said it wouldn't stop Mexican and Central American immigrants from crossing into the United States to do the jobs that U.S. citizens are loath to do.
José Carmona, head of the Red Paisano en Estados Unidos organizations, came from North Texas to participate in the protest.
"We consider the construction of a wall to be a violation of human and international rights," Carmona said. "It's a fact that we are (witnessing) ... a regression of those rights."
As the protesters spoke, many of the paisanos crossing back into the United States took photos and showed support for the demonstration against the fence.
Two Laredo police officers on bike patrol came near the demonstrators, but once they determined that the protesters were not on U.S. territory, they cycled back to the U.S. check booths.
The protest included several large banners with hand-written words in Spanish, including "Stop the Fence of Racism and Discrimination."
Chavira noted that the 700-mile wall, if built, would come at a high social and economic cost for U.S. citizens.
He added that the U.S. government's lack of shame is so great, construction of the wall likely would provide jobs for illegal immigrant workers.
Almaráz said local officials will take their case to the Mexican Congress to seek an international protest against the wall.
Academic Cabeza said systems involving better integration between the two nations, as well as temporary guest worker programs in certain sectors, could help ease the problem of illegal immigration.
A physical wall is anachronistic, autocratic and simply obsolete, he said.
Bulas said the civil resistance in support of migrant rights will continue, but he added that the Mexican government also must do its part.
In late December, the U.S. House approved the immigrant reform legislation, which included building a 700-mile fence, on a 239-182 vote. The fence would run through parts of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
The measure also would enlist military and local law enforcement to help stop illegal entrants and require employers to verify the legal status of their workers.
It now goes to the Senate, where Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has said he will bring up the measure in February. He also plans to include a discussion of guest worker programs, such as the one supported by President Bush.
Bush has called for granting three-year work visas to some illegal immigrants. The visas could be extended for another three years, but the workers would then have to return to their home countries and wait a year before they could apply for a new work permit.
(Miguel Timoshenkov can be reached at 728-2558 or timo1@lmtonline.com.)
Wonder if Carlos Cabeza has a wall around his backyard?
And an armed guard on his roof.
If they're protesting then we're doin' right. One is known as well by one's enemies.
"Mexicans protest proposed border fence" - can I nominate this for obvious headline of the day? Where's the "Americans protest lack of fence" article?
Bush isn't helping.
Their logic is so twisted they should be democrats.
Millions of them a year come here ILLEGALLY, overload all of our social service systems and it is racist on OUR part to want that to stop?
I *PAY* for all of those services through my taxes. If the US wants to put up a wall on its sovreign land, who the hell is Mexico to stop us? Maybe if they policed their *OWN* borders we would not have to.
Make it a high wall, then we won't have to see them.
but the Mexicans have absolutely no problem enforcing their southern border...
what is the Spanish word for "hypocrites?"
"We consider the construction of a wall to be a violation of human and international rights,"
Talk about being shameless, this is to the point of being ridiculous.
Heck, even disregarding his backyard, he has a home with walls, doesn't he? Or are we supposed to infer that he lives in the open, with an understanding that anything he may possess can and should be taken by anyone who happens across him?
Go Minutemen!
Enlist in your local chapters to go after the employers hiring illegals! Gotta fight the demand side of the equation too.
I for one, have no sympathy for these "immigrants" coming into our country ILLEGALLY. And I especially have no sympathy or empathy if they die while doing so.
Of course they are protesting a wall, because they know it will be one of our best defenses yet against their invasion.
Why it has taken Bush and his administration so long to finally start doing something, I don't know. But IMHO, I think it's one of Bush's biggest downfalls as a president to protect THIS country and fight the war on terror.
It is pathetic to me, that these ILLEGALS think THEY have a RIGHT to come here as they do and then reap the benefits the "liberals" claim as entitlements.
Put up the wall, China did it, and it seems to work for them....I say we do the following too:
1. CLOSE THE BORDERS
2. Add the National Guard
3. Add some more high tech gadgetry to enforce border security
4. Find the illegals in the country already and send them packing - NO work visas, no ammunity, no amnesty...get the f out and come back LEGALLY!!!!!
Sorry, let me tell you how I really feel...
Ok, I'm done
Get used to it,Pedro and Juanita! But fear not,for unlike the Berlin Wall,our machine guns will pointed at those who are trying to break *in* rather than break *out*!
If a wall is so useless, why do people in Mexico who believe anyone who wants to come to this country can come anytime illegally oppose it so much?
Mexicans protest new immigration laws
Mexicans protest plan to boot them out if they're here illegally
Mexicans protest when told the laws apply to them
Mexicans protest lousy picture on Matricula Consular ID
Wonder if Carlos Cabeza has a wall around his backyard?
Mexicans protest wall around Cabeza's backyard
Mexicans protest...
Blah, blah, blah.
They complain that it is racist, but then who would be the true racist instigator if it were solely one race being pushed north?
"One is known as well by one's enemies." Yep. Well said. The kleptocrats in Mexico sleep soundly at night because they have the safety valve of US immigration. Remove US immigration (and the $$ sent back to Mexico) and there will be a revolution. As there should be.
Are they also protesting their border with Guatamala, or is that unfair of me?/sarc.
The ones that the wall won't stop bullets will!
Just because they say it is racist does not make it so. *I* do not want to see a wall around the southern border because I dislike Mexicans.
*I* want to see a wall around the southern border because we are getting flooded with ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS who are overloading social services designed by, and paid for, by *US*.
I am ALL FOR people coming here legally. *THAT* is the true nature of the United States. It is why Ellis Island is famous. The Mexican gov't does not want these *ILLEGAL* immigrants back because their economy sucks. There is no work for the people that are there already, much less the millions here illegally.
That, however, is Mexico's problem. Not ours as a sovreign country and not mine as a taxpayer.
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