Free Republic

While Mexico has enhanced security since the Sept. 11 attacks, future cooperation hinges on U.S. willingness to liberalize its immigration policies, former Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda warned Congress on Tuesday. Mr. Castañeda, who is running as an independent in the 2006 presidential race, said security must be twinned with what he called the "whole enchilada" – legalization for the 6 million Mexicans living here illegally, visas for Mexicans desiring to come here in the future, and economic development for impoverished interior regions responsible for the exodus. "There can be no future cooperation beyond what already exists without some form...

For the U.S., Mexico and Canada, a secure and prosperous future hinges on an increased level of integration that would create a type of "North American Economic Community," Mexican presidential hopeful Jorge Castañeda told reporters during a speech in San Antonio on Saturday. "I think the best possible alternative (to the status quo in North American relations) is an intensifying of NAFTA in the direction of a European Economic Community," said Castañeda, referring to the North American Free Trade Agreement and the European Economic Community, a treaty that worked toward the economic integration of several European nations and laid a...