Thread: Mexico Fights Back as U.S. Proposes More Wall to Bar Immigra

Mexico Fights Back as U.S. Proposes More Wall to Bar Immigrants
Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- About 500 Mexicans died last year trying to cross illegally into the U.S. Mexican officials say the number of dead will increase if the U.S. approves a bill to construct 700 miles of wall along the southern border.

Mexico is fighting back. President Vicente Fox and the nation's Congress are unleashing a lobbying blitz to persuade the U.S. Senate to reject the bill passed last month by the House. They're urging lawmakers to adopt instead a proposal by Senators John McCain and Edward Kennedy that includes a temporary work program for Mexican immigrants.

``The immigration won't stop,'' said Heliodoro Diaz, speaker of Mexico's lower house of Congress. ``Far from it. The only thing a wall will do is increase the number of deaths as people head to more dangerous areas to cross.''

Since a U.S. crackdown on the border began 10 years ago with more agents and walls, the number of immigrants crossing Mexico's northern border has jumped to 400,000 a year from 300,000, according to the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington. Legislators such as Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Colorado Republican, are pushing for tougher anti-immigration laws as the Mexican population in the U.S. grows.

Fox hired Allyn & Co., a unit of Fleishmann-Hillard, to convince Americans of the need for migrant workers. Diaz will invite a group of U.S. senators and representatives to Mexico City as early as February to discuss the topic.

``We have to build a common future,'' Fox said in a Nov. 29 press conference in Mexico City. ``Together, we have to create the basis for prosperity, and we have to achieve that through agreements.''

Regional Support

Mexico's push to influence the immigration debate in the U.S. is winning support across Latin America.

Seven Central American countries, the Dominican Republic and Colombia joined Mexico in calling for a U.S. guest-worker program. The group, following a Jan. 9 meeting convened by Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez, also criticized measures that toughen border vigilance without considering an ``integral solution.''

The House bill focuses on ``criminalizing'' immigration instead of providing for a legal way to fill farm, construction and service jobs with migrants, Diaz said. The legislation also provides for adding 10,000 border agents and inspectors and boosts fines for businesses hiring illegal immigrants.

`Shameful'

Tancredo, who spearheaded a fight to keep a guest worker provision out of the House bill, criticized Fox for calling the legislation ``shameful.''

``Fox's comments are symptomatic of the disordered relationship between our two countries,'' Tancredo said in a statement Dec. 21. ``Although I continue to be disturbed by Mexico's intentional, premeditated circumvention of U.S. immigration laws, I am no longer surprised.''

After starting his six-year term in December 2000, Fox made reaching an immigration accord with the U.S. his foreign policy priority. Fox bet that a surging U.S. economy gave Mexico an opportunity to negotiate a temporary work program and amnesty for undocumented workers already living in the U.S. -- dubbed ``the whole enchilada'' by then-Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda. That window shut following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

Fox said he would settle for an immigration bill sponsored by Senators McCain and Kennedy that allows undocumented workers living in the U.S. to sign up for a temporary work program after paying a fine.

Fox and His Party

Fox and his National Action Party have the most to lose with the U.S. crackdown on Mexican migrants, after he sided with President George W. Bush on issues such as free trade and pushing for democracy in Cuba, said Juan Lindau. Lindau, director of the political science department at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, teaches courses on Latin American studies and has written three books on Mexico.

``This doesn't help politicians who have argued for a closer relationship with the U.S. on trade and other things,'' Lindau said. ``The left everywhere in Latin America has been benefiting from the perception that the U.S. engages in unilateral actions and doesn't really care about the wellbeing of Latin American countries.''

Andres Lopez Obrador, the presidential candidate from the Democratic Revolution Party and the frontrunner in a November poll by El Universal newspaper, said in a Jan. 8 speech in Mexico City that Fox has been weak in his response to the U.S. on immigration. Mexico holds presidential elections in July.

``It's maddening to see how President Vicente Fox -- because of his stubbornness in maintaining the same economic policy that only benefits the powerful elite -- doesn't have the moral or political authority to confront this insult of a border wall nor protest the death of migrants,'' Lopez Obrador was quoted as saying in the Mexico City newspaper La Jornada.

U.S. Involvement

Fox is getting help from groups in the U.S., including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Thomas Donohue, chief executive officer of the chamber, said in a Jan. 4 speech in Washington that he will fight against the House legislation on immigration.

``We strongly oppose the House bill, as does much of the business community, because it is simply unworkable, unreasonable and unfair,'' he said. ``This immigration debate is about more than a piece of legislation. It's about who we are as a people and a country.''

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``The immigration won't stop,''