Posted on 05/16/2006 2:15:57 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) -
Mexico said Tuesday that it would file lawsuits in U.S. courts if National Guard troops on the border become directly involved in detaining migrants.
Mexican border officials also said they worried that sending troops to heavily trafficked regions would push illegal migrants into more perilous areas of the U.S.-Mexican border to avoid detection.
President Bush announced Monday that he would send 6,000 National Guard troops to the 2,000-mile border, but they would provide intelligence and surveillance support to Border Patrol agents, not catch and detain illegal immigrants.
"If there is a real wave of rights abuses, if we see the National Guard starting to directly participate in detaining people ... we would immediately start filing lawsuits through our consulates," Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez told a Mexico City radio station. He did not offer further details.
Mexican officials worry the crackdown will lead to more deaths. Since Washington toughened security in Texas and California in 1994, migrants have flooded Arizona's hard-to-patrol desert and deaths have spiked. Migrant groups estimate 500 people died trying to cross the border in 2005. The Border Patrol reported 473 deaths in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.
In Ciudad Juarez, Julieta Nunez Gonzalez, local representative of the Mexican government's National Immigration Institute, said Tuesday she will ask the government to send its migrant protection force, known as Grupo Beta, to more remote sections of the border.
Sending the National Guard "will not stop the flow of migrants, to the contrary, it will probably go up," as people try to get into the U.S. in the hope that they could benefit from a possible amnesty program, Nunez said.
Juan Canche, 36, traveled more than 1,200 miles to the border from the southern town of Izamal and said nothing would stop him from trying to cross.
"Even with a lot of guards and soldiers in place, we have to jump that puddle," said Canche, referring to the drought-stricken Rio Grande dividing Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas. "My family is hungry and there is no work in my land. I have to risk it."
Some Mexican newspapers criticized President Vicente Fox for not taking a stronger stand against the measure, even though Fox called Bush to express his concerns.
A political cartoon in the Mexico City newspaper Reforma depicted Bush as a gorilla carrying a club with a flattened Fox stuck to it.
Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, said Tuesday that Mexico accepted Bush's statement that the sending in the National Guard didn't mean militarizing the area. He also said Mexico remained "optimistic" that the U.S. Senate would approve an immigration reform "in the interests of both countries."
Aguilar noted that Bush expressed support for the legalization of some immigrants and implementation of a guest worker program.
"This is definitely not a militarization," said Aguilar, who also dismissed as "absolutely false" rumors that Mexico would send its own troops to the border in response.
Bush has said sending the National Guard is intended as a stopgap measure while the Border Patrol builds up resources to more effectively secure the border.
In Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas, Honduran Antonio Auriel said he would make it into the U.S.
"Soldiers on the border? That won't stop me," he said. "I'll swim the river and jump the wall. I'm going to arrive in the United States."
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Associated Press Writer Mark Stevenson in Mexico City contributed to this report.
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If the huarachis fit, tu must acquitamos!
were they ever? in national security we don't have friends. we have interests.
NO THANKS.
"migrant protection force, known as Grupo Beta" -- an official organization of the Mexican government, chartered to act as accomplices in breaking U.S. laws!
We are already at war! Those "Grupo Beta" bozos sound like legitimate Pretador/Hellfire targets -- no matter which side of the Rio Grande they are on...
Yes I read that just this morning, someone posted that we cannot know what is going on behind the scenes so we should keep our mouths shut. I guess they were right about all the behind the scenes activity; but my mouth is not shut by any means.
Maybe we need to build them a bridge.
yeppers
Seems like they just don't get it. They want the jobs, etc., but what about the America part? Skimming the cream off the system.
I think right now President Bush is at bat, so he will either foul out, strike out, get a hit, or make a home run. I don't think what happened in the last game or a game years ago negates the fact that he is at bat now.
Now that was just flat out funny! Thanks for sharing!
"Someone wanna tell me how a foreign country even has standing in a US court to file a lawsuit? This is nuts!"
My 1st thoughts exactly!
The American people won't do squat about 50 million dead shredded aborted babies.
The American people won't do squat about being force to give up 40% of their income to the feds.
And the American people won't do squat about it if the courts support illegals and Mexico against U.S. citizens.
-PJ
I think your letter should be addressed to all the officials of Mexico and should be hand delivered to the Halls of Montezuma by our Marines. The last message our Marines hand delivered was received and many border issues were solved for many years. I think it was quite effective and it is time to repeat that which worked well in the past.
Hey Jorge! Mr. Nunez gets it, too bad you don't.
Crocodiles!! What a perfect idea. Just build a moat all across the border and "man" it with crocs. Would be cheaper than a wall and also would cut down on paid personnel.
Geez - I hope my city doesn't turn into a gang-ridden, dope-dealing p-hole like LA. Not exactly progress amigo.
So far they are avoiding this thread like the plague. LOL
They will soon appear I am sure, it should be funny, but no funnier than when they attempt to argue on the side of criminals and how illegally entering this country is just like speeding.
I've got news for you: it's going to happen whether you like it or not. The demographics are irreversible - it's why Bush is trying to take a centrist approach. His speech last night wasn't addressed to current Americans - it was targeted to future legal Hispanic voters. This has been engineered under the direction of Karl Rove, whose main intent is to maintain a viable GOP coalition.
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