Posted on 05/19/2006 10:02:14 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
TIJUANA – They were just miles away but worlds apart, two presidents grappling with the thorny issue of illegal immigration from opposite sides of the fence.
As President Bush swung through southern Arizona yesterday, Mexican President Vicente Fox traveled to his country's northern border, speaking out against U.S. proposals for strict immigration enforcement.
“Walls are not the solution,” Fox said after sharing lunch with a group of factory workers in Tijuana. “And neither is the National Guard.”
Fox took advantage of his visit to two of Mexico's largest border cities – Tijuana and Mexicali – to signal his opposition to President Bush's plans to send 6,000 U.S. National Guard troops to help secure the border with Mexico. In his strongest criticism yet, Fox denounced a proposal for double-and triple-layered fencing along 370 miles of the border, which was approved Wednesday by the U.S. Senate.
In recent days, Fox has been harshly criticized in Mexico for not speaking out about the plan to send the National Guard to the border, a move that Bush proposed Monday. Mexican media have portrayed Fox's efforts to influence U.S. immigration reform as a failure, and Mexico's leftist candidate for president on Wednesday accused Fox of a tepid response to the military deployment.
“He has not the slightest intention of making an energetic protest,” Andrés Manuel López Obrador said during a campaign stop in the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa. “He is acting like a puppet, a plaything of foreign governments.”
Fox and his foreign minister agreed late Wednesday to send a diplomatic note expressing the Mexican government's concern about a deployment of the National Guard.
As his office prepared to message Washington, D.C., yesterday, Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbéz insisted “there is no chilling nor heating up” of the relationship between Mexico and the United States. The Fox government simply wants to make it “very clear that the National Guard should not be used for matters of apprehension or detention, not only of our countrymen but of any nationality that is crossing the border,” he said.
The Mexican president broached the topic of U.S. immigration policy at least twice during his visit to Baja California. His first stop of the day was Mexicali, just 50 miles west of Yuma, Ariz., where President Bush toured the border and expressed his support for additional fencing to slow the rising tide of illegal immigration.
Fox voiced his objections about the border fence during a ceremony celebrating the expansion of a truck plant, Kenworth de Mexico.
He praised the region's thriving commerce, and said fences were counterproductive to the interests of both countries.
“The construction of barriers at the border does not offer an effective response for a relationship between friends, neighbors and partners,” Fox said.
Later, in Tijuana, when he met with workers at the electronics maquiladora Plamex, Fox spoke directly – and sternly – to the American public.
“To those in front – I am referring to the United States – I want to tell you to be very respectful of Mexico, to be very respectful of the dignity of Mexicans, to not see them as lesser, and to not discriminate against nor violate the human rights of our dear countrymen in the United States,” he said.
Fox has consistently pushed for a guest worker program, and has urged the United States to consider amnesty for most of the estimated 11 million to 12 million immigrants living illegally in the country.
The legislation being considered by the Senate includes a measure to heighten control over the borders, but also creates a guest worker program and offers a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants already in the country.
Senate leaders say they hope for passage of the controversial legislation before the Memorial Day weekend. It then would have to be reconciled with an enforcement-heavy bill that the House of Representatives approved in December.
As the Senate prepares to vote, Fox plans to travel to California, Washington state and Utah.
Fox is scheduled to speak to a joint session of the state Legislature on Thursday in Sacramento, before attending a reception and dinner hosted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Mexican president will then fly to Los Angeles on May 26 for a private meeting with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa before returning to Mexico.
Schwarzenegger's office said his meeting with Fox would focus on shared economic goals such as increasing tourism and trade. California is Mexico's second-largest trading partner after Texas, with California exports to Mexico totaling $18 billion last year.
“I think the key thing is not to make the immigration issue overshadow everything else. There are other serious issues that we have to talk about,” Gov. Schwarzenegger said Wednesday in Sacramento. “We can all benefit by the more we work together.”
lol I think you mean "overlapping" or "interlocking".
I was thinking the same thing! Better still, put a row of giant mirrors into stationary orbit, reflecting and focusing the sun's rays across the US/Mexico border, raising the temperature to a comfy 500 degrees Fahrenheit across a five-mile-wide strip.
Let 'em cross, if they can :D
Do you take cheese with your clacker?
Shove it Fox!!!
You know, walls are expensive ..... maybe a machine gun position every 50 yards or so along the border might be easier?
"Hey Vincinte......these will work."
These days I wouldn't be sure which way to point those claymores.
"Then I propose we set up minefields and interloping fields of fire... ;)"
And moats filled with Pirahnas with freaking laser beams on their heads.
No, no we are not. Only the serfs are ruled by law.
20-30 million illegal invaders, are not ruled by law.
Cynthia McKinney, is not ruled by law.
Patches Kennedy, nor any Kennedy, is ruled by law.
John F'n sKerry, is not ruled by law.
Oh heck, most all in CONgress, are not ruled by the laws they impose on the "little" people.
The "We are a nation of Laws" mantra needs to be abandoned - it is a joke.
If the problem is: "How can we keep 20 million impoverished Mexicans from starting a popular revolution?"
Yes, Fox, a WALL is the solution. And we should also stop all funding to your sorry country, amigo....
If you would clean up your country, your poor, huddled masses wouldn't need to flee her to get away from the stench of corruption and poverty.
If you don't like it Vicente...tough luck!
Why don't you provide jobs for your own people.
There's three classes in Mexico the rich and the poor...and the Corrupt!
80,000 machine gun pits and crews to man them 24/7 ?
I think a fence will be cheaper and work nearly as well.
Governments don't 'provide' jobs unless they are a socialist or communist regime.
I think what you mean is, "Why don't you clean out the corruption so businesses can prosper in Mexico and employ people !"
... but ironically from the same side of the issue.
Spot on. Getting rid of Pemex would be a good start.
I can't get past the picture of the President as the Lone Range and Fox as his Tonto -
Evidently they have some sort of relationship or the WHite HOuse would be responding in some way to Fox's crazy threats - and Fox is behaving like someone made a bargain with him and didn;t keep it.
I'm sick of all of them.
“Walls are not the solution,” Fox said
Okay, how about land mines ?
Your right! But you know what I mean. I'm just fed up with the leaders of Mexico not being responsible for their own citiztens. The authorities should promote business friendly atmosphere to promote wealth. They expect bribes, red tape and more bribes.
It's a real human right's issue here, I think. If Jose gets hurt on the job here in the states...he's SOL...and if he goes back to Mexico because he can't work anymore...he is SOL. The Mexican authorities don't have to provide any disability insurance because the injury took place in the US. Jose can't sue because he was an illegal alien working illegally in the United States.
Put up the fence! It will make Mexico authorities wake up and take care of their own problems! Let the citizens take care of their own country instead of running away and encourage corruption to thrive unchecked in their homeland.
Go take their Mexican flags and march in the streets of Mexico City demanding their rights as citizens.
I'm tired of our country being the free babysitter for Mexico.
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