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El Salvador Ducks U.S. Immigration Debate
As the immigrant rights movement mobilizes for a national strike today, few countries have more at stake in the U.S. debate than El Salvador.

Mexico is the biggest factor in the U.S. debate, with more than 26 million people of Mexican descent living here. But Mexico is not as dependent on its expatriate workers as El Salvador. More than two million Salvadorans --- a quarter of the country's population -- live in the United States. The vast majority have come in the past 25 years and the majority are here illegally. They send $2.5 billion a year in remittances (remesas) to relatives back home; according to the State Department, that's about 17 percent of the country's total gross national product. El Salvador is so dependent on American money that it abolished its own currency in 2000 and made the U.S. dollar the only legal tender.

Congressional legislation to crack down illegal immigration, deport undocumented workers and bar services to illegal immigrants has mobilized the Salvadoran community in America like no other issue.

Yet in El Salvador itself, U.S. immigration reform is rarely talked about.

"There is no sense that a new immigration law might be a threat because the government is so friendly with the United States," says Narciso Castillo, a television talk show host on Channel 33 in San Salvador. "The government does not talk about the issue and the media is very pro-government."

President Tony Saca has said he welcomes immigration reform in the United States. He has emphasized that pending proposals will eventually lead to citizenship for the estimated 268,000 Salvadorans in the Untied States who have Temporary Protected Status. The U.S. offered TPS to Salvadoran residents after devastating earthquakes in early 2001. President Bush met with Saca in February and renewed TPS for Salvadorans in March.

According to political observers, there has been virtually no discussion of the issue in the National Assembly where the ruling Arena party and the leftist Faribundo Marti Liberation Front jockey for advantage.

Unlike in Mexico, where U.S. immigration reform has prompted emotional debate, Salvadoran newspapers have not published much commentary on how the different immigration reform proposals might affect the country.

"The media does not really explain the difference between the Democratic and Republican proposals," says Castillo.

The country's leading newspapers, which range from right-wing to ultra right-wing in the editorial outlook, support Saca's efforts to position El Salvador as the most loyal supporter of the Bush administration in the hemisphere. El Salvador was the first country to approve the U.S.-backed Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and it is the only Latin American country with troops in Iraq.

The Salvadoran community in the United States receives extensive coverage back home. La Prensa Grafica reported today on the impact of an anti-illegal immigrant law in Georgia. But few in government or the media are inclined to take firm positions on such laws.

Castillo sees a double standard behind the lack of debate.

"On the one side, the government want the immigrants to send the remesas. The economy couldn't survive without them. On the other hand, it doesn't want to do anything publicly to protect the status of those immigrants. The policy is all based on confidence that things will turn out well for Salvadorans because of good relations with Bush."

By Jefferson Morley | May 1, 2006; 12:45 PM ET