Mexico cheers passage of immigration bill in Senate committee

Boston Herald ^ | March 28, 2006 | Associated Press

[billorites]

Mexicans cheered the proposal approved yesterday by the Senate Judiciary Committee to legalize undocumented migrants and provide temporary work visas, and credited huge marches of migrants across the United States as the decisive factor behind the vote.

Mexican President Vicente Fox said the vote was the result of five years of work dating to the start of his presidential term in 2000, and puts Mexico one step closer toward the government’s goal of “legalization for everyone” who works in the United States.

“My recognition and respect for all the Hispanics and all the Mexicans who have made their voice heard,” Fox said. “We saw them turn out this weekend all across the United States, and that’s going to count for a lot as we move forward.”

Some Mexican media outlets were even more euphoric, predicting final approval for the committee bill as drafted, and suggesting the weekend demonstrations showed Mexico still holds some sway over former territories which it lost in the 1846-48 Mexican-American War.

“With all due respect to Uncle Sam, this shows that Los Angeles has never stopped being ours,” reporter Alberto Tinoco said on the Televisa television network’s nightly news broadcast, referring to a Saturday march in Los Angeles that drew an estimated 500,000, mainly Mexicans.

But U.S. ambassador Tony Garza warned Mexicans yesterday that the proposal still faces a long, difficult path through Congress.

“The debate will no doubt be heated and at times contentious,” Garza wrote in an open letter distributed in Mexico City. “The debate in the Senate is only one part of the lengthy process.”

The bill is designed to strengthen enforcement of U.S. borders, regulate the flow into the country of so-called guest workers and determine the legal future of the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the United States illegally.

The bill would double the Border Patrol and authorizes a “virtual wall” of unmanned vehicles, cameras and sensors to monitor the U.S.-Mexico border. It also allows more visas for nurses and agriculture workers, and shelters humanitarian organizations from prosecution if they provide non-emergency assistance to illegal residents.

The most controversial provision would permit illegal aliens currently in the country to apply for citizenship without first having to return home, a process that would take at least six years.

Fox has been pushing for a migration accord that would grant some form of legal status to many of the estimated 6 million undocumented Mexicans in the United States. He is likely to bring up the topic when he meets with President Bush starting Thursday in Cancun.

Although a bill granting amnesty to illegal immigrants is unlikely to be approved by Congress, Fox remains hopeful that at least a guest-worker program will be put in place before he leaves office on Dec. 1.

If the United States approves such a program, it would bolster Fox’s image and aid the prospects of Felipe Calderon, presidential candidate for Fox’s National Action Party, or PAN, said George Grayson, a Mexico expert at the College of William & Mary.

“Fox is looking for some way to be remembered in history,” Grayson said.

Illegal migration has emerged as a significant issue in the campaigns of Mexico’s three major presidential hopefuls for the July 2 elections, and the United States has asked Mexico to do more to strengthen security along their common border.

[verity]

"view them as new voters"

Very astute observation IMHO. Nothing appeals more to most elected officials than votes for which they prostitute themselves..

[houeto]

http://www.mexica-movement.org/timexihcah/video/mmintro.htm

[Phantom Patriot]

So you are not proposing deportation


In some cases no.I think the real goal here is that they follow proper procedures.Not be rewarded for breaking the
law.


Cut off the benefits and hope they return home. OK. That's a plan


No. Cut off the benefits and hope they go home or back to the start line and proceed correctly.




Unfortunately, using the expression "DUH" is degrading [to you].


That is merely a layman's expression that illustrates how simplistic the answer was. It's a shame that all you can find to attack me is terminology. That would be the real problem. Stay off point ya know.

You analyze the issue to the point of not knowing what to do or feeling that solutions are too complicated to attempt. I say take action following the written law and tweak it as you go. Don't sit on your hands and do nothing. That's how this became a problem in the first place.

[verity]

Allow me to add one more observation.

No matter what compromise solution is negotiated in Congress, a significant number of Americans will be pissed.

[Phantom Patriot]

I definitely concur with that observation.