Posted on 09/19/2001 3:55:33 AM PDT by Brownie74
WASHINGTON – Immigration talks between the United States and Mexico appear to be among the first political victims of last week's deadly terrorist attacks, analysts and government officials on both sides of the border say.
Meanwhile, U.S. authorities are investigating how three of the suspected terrorists entered the country undetected over the U.S.-Canadian border.
The Bush administration reiterated Tuesday that new immigration measures will be part of an anti-terrorism legislative package to be delivered to Congress as early as Wednesday. Lawmakers also plan to debate tightening the U.S.-Canada border.
The attacks in Washington and New York came days after Mr. Bush welcomed Mexican President Vicente Fox for a state visit that highlighted their friendship and a new spirit of unprecedented cooperation on key issues, including immigration.
The countries have been negotiating an agreement that could allow tens of thousands of Mexican guest workers into the United States. With the Fox administration leading the agenda on migration, they seemed to be on the brink of finding a solution to the decades-old problem, though rocky debates certainly loomed.
For now, "whatever momentum there was has just hit a brick wall," said Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center of Immigration Studies, which describes itself as a nonpartisan think tank opposed to increased immigration.
"Migration talks are, for the time being, defunct," Mr. Camarota said. "They're off the table for now."
Others aren't so sure about declaring the issue dead. "Things will definitely be much harder to get passed, but it's too soon to say 'Throw in the towel,' " said a Democratic aide in the House who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"The attacks will rightly disrupt the rhythm of what we do," said a Mexican diplomat involved with the talks on a comprehensive accord for controlling Mexican migration to the United States. "But the long-term need for a solution, a pact, remains. We just must be prudent about this situation and the timing."
Mexican officials say that in a recent phone conversation, President Bush assured his Mexican counterpart that issues discussed during Mr. Fox's recent visit remained important.
In light of the crisis, Mexican officials added, the United States should work with Mexico to legitimize the flow of migrants and gain a measure of control over the porous border.
Analysts agreed, saying the attacks had turned immigration into a national security issue for the United States.
"Unless Mexico can frame these as national security issues for the United States, then it will be difficult to find an echo in Washington," said Antonio Ocaranza, a consultant with Texas-based Public Strategies and a former Mexican presidential spokesman.
"For example, Mexico could argue that legalizing Mexicans in the United States is better than having a population that is hiding from the law. Likewise, organized crime and drug trafficking need to be framed the same way, as national security issues, in order to get U.S. attention," he said.
Some analysts recalled 1942, when World War II created a significant need for laborers to keep the country producing food.
"There is a strong view among many Americans now that Mexicans play a strong role in the U.S. economy," said Barbara Driscoll, a professor at the Center for North American Studies at the National Autonomous University in Mexico City. "That's why the two countries must continue to talk about migration."
Staff writers Ricardo Sandoval and Laurence Iliff in Mexico City contributed to this report.
No kidding!!
Bad news with the only silver lining being this amnesty/ normalization garbage is ON HOLD!!!!! For the foreseeable future
Instead of using them for laborers to produce food, why don't we register them for the draft, put them in uniform and send them to Afghanistan? You would see a mass exodus headed south to the border.
Yea, but what about the un-inspected Mexican trucks rolling freely across the border?
I will have to say, I've seen alot of American patriotism on the Mexican channels lately, including (American) flag waving and singing the national anthem....More displays of American patriotism on their channels than ours in fact....They even showed Mexicans enlisting at the recruiters offices.
Very good point.
As far as I know, Mexican trucks are still limited to operating within a 20 mile zone north of the border.
As far as Mexicans enlisting---that is the law. The law (Selective Service) states that all aliens, including illegal aliens</font color=red>, must register for the draft.
They don't know the meaning of the words---WE GIVE!!
Government figures say that there are 18,000,000 illegal aliens in America, 3,000,000 of them being Mexican. Who are the other 15,000,000? Where are they? What are they up to? Why did our government allow this to happen? They (the government) is simply not doing it's job.
I agree with Marine Inspector. There is no control or exit policy. Five minutes after these people enter our country, they scatter like quail and we loose track of them. It doesn't make sense to me.
Sounds good to me.
That is exactly how a lot of legislation gets through. They get you focused on one issue while they quietly pass legislation on another. They have the advantage on us. There is so many issues we need to track it is difficult to keep abreast of all of them. They control the agenda, not us.
If this disaster causes the federal government to rethink immigration and to control our borders it will be the only bright spot I see in this whole mess. Hopefully that will be the case, but I'm not too optimistic about it considering the track record of our so called leaders.
The failure of the federal government to control our borders is in large part what made this attack possible. This attack did not come from outside this country but from within. It shouldn't have been that easy for the terrorists. The terrorists lived here, trained here and made the attack from here.
WarHawk42
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