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Mexico’s constitution and its General Population Act - its main law addressing immigration - include some of the very elements that protesters in the United States are fighting to defeat before they become law in this country.

Under Article 123 of the General Population Act, illegal immigration is an offense punishable by up to two years in prison and a fine of up to 5,000 pesos, or about $450. Typically, any crime with a punishment of a year or more is considered a felony.

Article 118 of the act says foreigners who are deported and then later attempt to re-enter the country without authorization can be punished with up to 10 years in prison.

Under Article 73, local police must cooperate with federal immigration authorities when asked to help enforce the nation’s immigration laws.

As set forth in several articles of the act, immigrants are admitted into Mexico according to their potential to “contribute to the national progress” and must have the income needed to support themselves.

Article 9 of the constitution says only citizens may assemble to “take part in the political affairs of the country.” Under Article 33, noncitizens “may not in any way participate in the political affairs of the country.”

Less than 1 percent of Mexico’s population is foreign-born; in a country of 106 million people, roughly 500,000 are migrants. By contrast, foreign-born residents account for about 12 percent of the U.S. population.

For most of the illegal immigrants who cross Mexico’s southern border, deportation or other legal penalties are the least of their worries.

Migrants routinely face rape, robbery and assault. Corrupt police and soldiers are known to abuse them and take their money.

“Mexico has a deplorable record of human-rights violations on its southern border,” Tinker Salas said. “That is well documented.”

Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission outlined some of the abuses and the poor condition of migrant-detainment facilities in a report in December.

Commission President Jose Luis Sobernanes Fernandez said the report highlighted Mexico’s imbalance of demanding respect for human rights from the United States while treating migrants in its own country harshly.

“If Americans are going to travel to Mexico or France or any other country, we have to enter into that country respectfully,” Vargas said. “We have to respect the laws of that country.”

While critics charge Mexico with hypocrisy for its treatment of the poor from Central America, Vargas said the United States has its own hypocrisy to confront as well.

By discouraging illegal immigration with one hand but beckoning the cheap labor with the other, the current U.S. immigration policy is inhumane, he said.

“We take advantage of the Mexicans coming into this country and turn them into slaves,” he said. “Where is (the) compassion, that we exploit these people in the same way that we exploited the blacks?”

http://www.sbsun.com/columnists/ci_3767570