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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And if I remember correctly, we latter made a settlement giving in to the Mexicans! But why shouldn't Mexicans convicted of murder in the U.S. get special rights?
Oh, now that is some good work!
LOL - Great picture! :)
Don't bet on it.
I'm not sure who is running those ping lists.....
Not a bad idea. Filling in the deep parts of the Rio Grande....but with Sharks.
Everyone that choses not to have an abortion has done something about so many abortions. They made a better choice and in a free society they did the right thing on both accounts. They had a choice to make and they made one that is agreeable to your position.
People that actually have 40% of their income taken in taxes find ways to send that money out of their checkbooks to places they would rather see it go. They also have figured out that voting for rightees instead of lefties help that out HENCE the gains in congress and the white house over the last 15 years or so.
The minutemen and all who support them are doing something about illegal immigration now. People like little old me have finally begun to tell those businesses that cop to illegal labor and all the spanish that we will take our business elswhere. The issue is finally out front. Thanks to the average everyday folks.
Sorry but I did not find anything accurate in your post.
Leave it to Mexican officials to demand their American rights.
WTO - human trade
It is all we have become.
I have stayed on the fence on much of this issue. I trust and believe in President Bush and I refuse to get hysterical.
However, if these people keep it up, I will jump that fence, join the bigots (while still trying to support my president) and fight these morons to my last drop of blood.
They really do need to KNOCK THIS CRAP OFF!!
I remember 30 years ago my family in NM complaining about illegals coming over onto their land, and not being allowed to do anything about it.
Each administration pushed it onto the next. They are all to blame.
Does wanting the rule of law enforced and wanting to see my nations borders repsected and defended make me a bigot?
Respected EVEN! My bad.
This thread is no longer about rational thought. There are a bunch of.... oh never mind.....
"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.""
Well Mr. Auriel, I'm afraid you are right. Until our gutless, half assed politicians remove any desire for you to come here, by severely punishing anyone who would give you a job you'll be ok. That's assuming you want to come here to work, and not to get on welfare. The above mentioned gutless half assed politicians should prevent you from getting that too. Then you certainly wouldn't want to come here. Maybe if we also build a wall and increase security you couldn't come here anyway, BUT the gutless half assed politicians won't do that either. Welcome to America Mr. Auriel, you can always look back on the worthless bunch of cowards in Washington DC as your Founding Fathers.
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