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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I have to keep a distance from all this, as I think I am going nuts when I hear this sort of stuff coming from Mexico....think about the future with 10 to 20 million Mexicans here, and Mexico calling the shots...
Who's country is this anyway?
The Mexican government is shooting itself in the foot. PR-wise, this is a really lousy move. Plus - they would probably lose.
passing year...how about each passing week
Hey Mexico
It seems many other countries have figured out that the way to get what they want is through our court system, and the ACLU.
BRING IT ON!
(It's just part of the charade...)
I can't read any more about this. I get so mad!
If the Mexican government is so worried about their citizens taking more perilous routes into the United States, with the advent of OUR AMERICAN TROOPS CONTROLLING AND PROTECTING OUR BORDERS; why doesn't the Mezxican government change their laws and working conditions so their citizens will NOT WANT to come to America?
Your country has been sold.
Bush is a con man.
They sure know how to play us. Thanks a lot to 50 years of liberal/socialist/commie/demonrat judicial activism.
We need to start slapping these third-worlders around.
Who the hell do these punks think they are?
There is a Sheriff in Oregon that sent Vincente Fox a Bill for $300,000 for care and feeding of some of his citizens....
That's so great! I read that yesterday. Wish our Governator, Mr. Maria Shriver Kennedy, had the guts to do something similar.
This is a good example of how this issue relates to the war on terrorism. Both Al Qaeda and Mexico are now attempting to use our own laws against us for their benefit and our detriment.
Unlike many I would LOVE to see them actually file some suits. It would be hilarious to watch it play out. No matter how it turned out from the bench it would be a positive thing.
If they ruled in our favor Mexico has to take it in the hiney and accept that their free ride is over.
OTH
If the bench rules in Mexico's favor then the American people will be excercising their second ammendment rights to the tune that no politician could calm.
Either way we would have progress on this issue.
By all means MEXICO, go on and sue for the purpose of showing all Americans that we do not have the right to defend ourselves. Bring it on.
Plus it would be interesting to see which of the lefties would support this action by mexico.
He is pathetic when it comes to the border issue..
crocodiles with lasers on their heads!
BRING IT ON!
"maybe thrown in jail for breaking the law?"
Maybe we CAN do that now. If they tried, we could sue on the grounds of discrimination. After all, we wouldn't be doing anything that the government is encouraging ILLEGALS to do.
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