Thread: Calderon promotes increased funding for Mexicans in the U.S.

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/ ... 293870.htm

Calderon promotes increased funding for Mexicans in the U.S.

By Laurence Iliff

The Dallas Morning News

(MCT)

MEXICO CITY - President Felipe Calderon wants a 21 percent increase in government funding to help Mexican workers in the U.S. as part of his 2007 budget proposal. And for the first time, all of the fees collected by consulates would be dedicated to consular services abroad and not sent back to Mexico City.

Those are some of the changes Calderon has proposed to give greater support to a migrant population that sent a record $20 billion dollars home in 2005 to support Mexican families.

Immigrants have complained for years that the Mexican government does not provide them the resources they deserve given their economic clout, and Calderon's budget is the first sign of how he intends to address their concerns.

Still, opposition parties in Congress have criticized Calderon's 2007 budget proposal for turning its back on immigrants.

Those parties have suggested that the new president wants to slash funds for mistreated children of immigrants, legal assistance, and for the repatriation of the bodies of Mexicans who die abroad.

Both major opposition parties, the Party of the Democratic Revolution and the Institutional Revolutionary Party, have promised to restore funding for all of those programs during budget negotiations that must conclude by the end of the year.

Calderon's conservative National Action Party does not have a majority in either house of Congress.

A government document entitled "Support for Migrants in the 2007 Budget Proposal" documents the proposed increase in spending on immigrant services as compared to 2006.

"The 2007 federal budget proposal contemplates a real increase of 21 percent in programs destined to offer support to immigrants," according to document.

In dollar terms, spending on immigrant services in 2007 would be about $139 million compared to $111 million in 2006.

Some of the confusion as to whether Calderon was boosting or cutting the budget for immigrant services is also addressed in the document. It says that funds destined for some services in the 2006 budget went unused for their original purpose and were re-directed to other areas where there was a funding shortfall.

In other words, the 2007 budget redirects monies from one area to another based on where those funds were actually spent in 2006.

One change for 2007 stressed by Calderon during a visit to Reynosa this week is that monies from consular services would be re-invested in the consulates and not be partially sent back to Mexico City for other uses.

According to the government analysis, that will represent a 40 percent real increase (after inflation) in consular funds. In dollar terms, the rise would be from about $52 million in 2006 to $75 million in 2007.

Some immigrant programs will be cut, however, in Calderon's budget proposal.

Three of them - consular assistance, elementary education, and a government matching program for community projects in Mexico - receive the same funding in pesos, meaning a real drop of 3.4 percent due to inflation.

But the National Immigration Institute's program for immigrant protection sees its budget nearly double in Calderon's proposal, from $4.3 million to $9 million.

The Mexican Congress was still debating the income side of the 2007 budget on Thursday. The spending side comes next, and funds for immigrant services are sure to be hotly discussed.

Good Grief. Now they'll have even more resources to fight to stay here.



Hey! Maybe we can send the consulates all those medical and hospital bills?!?!?!

:P

My thoughts exactly Judy - they need to pay for medical costs and stop bilking American citizens.

And instead of repatriating the dead, how about repatriating the living?

Right!!

And Kate, how about repatriating ... America?

Time to throw these Traitors out of our government.

Time to throw these illegal foreign nationals out of our country.

Time to BUST the Cabel.

Time to Take Our Country Back!!

Originally Posted by Kate

And instead of repatriating the dead, how about repatriating the living?

Now thats and excellent plan!