Thread: Interview with Mexican Ambassador Carlos de Icaza

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2006/06 ... th_me.html

Sweet column: Interview with Mexican Ambassador Carlos de Icaza---Immigration a ``shared responsibility.''

For months now, I've been writing about the divisive immigration debate before Congress from the U.S. perspective.

I sat down with the Mexican ambassador to the United States, Carlos de Icaza, at the Mexican Embassy in Washington, and realized how different the story is from the other side.

To the United States, the issue is called immigration; the diplomat speaks of "migration.''

"We recognize that we haven't created all of the economic and social opportunities for our people to stay in Mexico,'' Icaza told me.

The career diplomat, posted to the embassy since March 2004, visits Chicago on Monday to speak to the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations.

The House passed a bill to make illegal immigrants felons. The Senate approved a measure with a guest worker program and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Both bills provide for a fence along parts of the southern border. It's not clear the House and Senate will reconcile their differences and send President Bush the "comprehensive'' legislation he wants to sign.

"Mexico is willing to do its part,'' Icaza said. He said the official position of his government is this: If the United States created a temporary worker program with plenty of visas, Mexico would agree to be responsible for guaranteeing its own citizens depart Mexico legally.

If Mexicans knew they could come and go legally as guest workers -- a concept Icaza calls "circularity'' -- the incentive for border jumping and smuggling would diminish.

Last month, Bush sent National Guard troops to help seal the southern border. That prompted Mexican President Vicente Fox to raise concerns of militarization on the border.

I asked Icaza if a fence was seen as an insult.

"We need between the United States and Mexico to build more bridges,'' he said.

The following is an edited conversation with Icaza:

Q. You have written Mexico "has proposed to work with the United States under the principle of shared responsibility'' for legal "migration.'' Does your country believe the United States shares this principle?

A. "I hope it does. ... What we have between the United States and Mexico is a migration driven by wages. There is a gap in wages between our countries. The American economy is 15 times the size of the Mexican economy.

"When I speak of shared responsibility, this means ... that both countries are responsible for the migration flow ... as an economic, social, human and political issue. Shared responsibility means that each country has to do its part. We recognize that we haven't created all of the economic and social opportunities for our people to stay in Mexico. ... We need our people to stay. The future of our country is at stake.''

Q. The House and Senate legislation?

A. "We hope the American Congress will acknowledge that Mexico is a friendly country ... that instead of blaming each other, or finger pointing at each other, we can work together. This is the only sensible thing to do. "

Q. So the message is the Mexican government wants people to come home? Do you think that has gotten out to the United States?

A. "Let's not put this out of context. ... What we want here is comprehensive immigration reform, which means several things. From our point of view, first and foremost, a solution for the people who are living here because you have millions of people who live in a state of fear; they have uncertainty of collecting their wages. They are very hardworking people. So we would hope there will be a path to legalize their situation.''

Q. Does it matter to your country that the proposals are to build fences along the southern border with Mexico and not along the northern border with Canada?

A. "We would expect the same treatment as the Canadians. That's the least we would expect.''

Q. From your country's perspective, is Congress agreeing on no bill better than the House bill?

A. "I don't think the status quo is good for anyone involved.''

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/3977651.html

June 17, 2006, 7:03PM

Envoy tries to debunk myths about Mexico
Despite tension over immigration, nation's a partner of U.S., foreign ambassador says
By PATTY REINERT
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - He readily admits he's addicted to sushi; volunteers that he's a "news freak guy" who spends too much time surfing the Internet. He crosses the room to show off a framed photograph of the 2-year-old son he loves to take to the zoo. With a little prodding, he'll even reveal his favorite Washington restaurants.

But don't ask Mexican Ambassador Carlos de Icaza a tricky question like which foreign posting he liked best. ("I have a rule. My favorite assignment is always my current assignment.")

Or whether the U.S. Congress is ever going to be able to reconcile two very different immigration bills. ("I'm a foreign diplomat. Diplomacy is not about predictions.")

Or who's going to win the Mexican presidential election. ("No!" he says, laughing and raising a hand to stop the question.)

He does have a bet on the World Cup, but on this topic he is also, well, diplomatically sensitive: "We're betting our team is going to do very well."

When it comes to discussing U.S.-Mexico relations, however, de Icaza's answers grow long — and passionate.

"I would love for Americans to update their information about Mexico," he said at the Mexican Embassy last week. "When you are a neighbor of somebody, you have already made up your mind. Since you were a boy, you have learned about the other ... and then things change, but you're not aware of how they've changed."


Important player
De Icaza, who has represented his country in Asia, Europe, South America and, for the past two years, in Washington, said the United States has always been the most important country to Mexico. What has changed, he said, is that now Mexico is also important to the United States.

That fact makes the Mexican ambassador a key player in Washington at a time when controversial immigration legislation is being debated, trade agreements are being crafted and post-9/11 security remains an urgent concern.

De Icaza spends long days meeting with officials at the White House and State Department, as well as with members of Congress and business groups.

"When I arrived here, an American friend of mine told me, 'You will find out that the American government is the government of a thousand doors,' " he said. "That is true because there are so many agencies involved in decision-making. ... The Mexican ambassador here has to really knock doors and has to really go around town. Then you have Congress, and Congress by itself is an encyclopedia of topics."


Selling points
On the list of things de Icaza said he's trying to explain to Americans about his homeland:

•Mexico is now a democratic society, having closed the door on more than 70 years of one-party domination to create a political system in which 95 percent of eligible voters have registered and multiple parties are vying for power.
•It is now America's second-largest trading partner, after Canada.
•It is gaining in the fight against organized crime, dismantling borderland drug cartels, jailing kingpins and destroying illicit crops.
•Its economy is growing. Debts are being paid and inflation is under control. Hundreds of thousands of jobs have been created.
•It is among the most successful countries in the world in reducing fertility rates.
•It has its own immigration challenges, and has sent home hundreds of thousands of Central Americans bound for the United States.
Most important, the ambassador said, Mexicans are cooperating with their northern neighbors as never before.

A prime example is security, he said. Despite hundreds of daily commercial flights between the United States and Mexico and at least 1 million legal border crossings per day, there hasn't been a single incident between the two countries involving terrorists.

U.S. government officials, including President Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Tony Garza, a native Texan who serves as the United States' ambassador in Mexico City, agree. Despite differences on the war in Iraq, violent flare-ups along the U.S.-Mexico border and tensions over immigration reform, they often describe Mexico as one of America's closest partners and say tremendous progress has been made in U.S.-Mexico relations.


'Doesn't mince words'
De Icaza, 58, is the son of a Mexican diplomat. He was born in Lebanon and grew up around the world. After spending the first half of his career in Mexico — to compensate, he said, for his upbringing mostly outside the country — he has served as Mexico's ambassador to Ecuador, Argentina, Belgium, Luxembourg and Japan.

Larry Birns, a Latin America expert who directs the left-leaning Council on Hemispheric Affairs, said de Icaza is "a man who treads very lightly" and has made few waves in Washington, especially compared with other, more vocal, Mexican government officials.

"He may be so skilled at doing things in a highly private manner that he doesn't leave much imprint," Birns said. "The question is, is that what Mexico needs right now?"

But Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who heads the Senate immigration subcommittee as well as the Senate delegation to the U.S.-Mexico Interparliamentary Group, described de Icaza as an effective diplomat.

"Carlos is not, after the mess is created, trying to clean it up. He's very proactive, and he's been enormously helpful to me, in helping me to understand his country ... to learn how to talk about a very volatile issue (immigration) on both sides of the border," Cornyn said. "He's more active than any other ambassador I've dealt with."

Cornyn, who has traveled with de Icaza for U.S.-Mexico meetings in Rhode Island and in Mexico, said he appreciates the fact that de Icaza "doesn't mince words."

"He is very forthright, and I've found I can trust what he tells me," he said. "Sometimes ambassadors, being diplomats, are characterized as being obsequious and ambiguous in what they say or in what they mean, but I've found him to be a very good friend, and he does a very good job for his country."

patty.reinert@chron.com

More rhetoric provided by Brian!

If the United States created a temporary worker program with plenty of visas, Mexico would agree to be responsible for guaranteeing its own citizens depart Mexico legally.

We have all of the above and you are not holding up your end of the bargain! NO MORE!!!! BUILD A WALL!!!!!!!!

"We recognize that we haven't created all of the economic and social opportunities for our people to stay in Mexico,'' Icaza told me.

that's a Mexican problem, not a problem of the United States

"Mexico is willing to do its part,'' Icaza said. He said the official position of his government is this: If the United States created a temporary worker program with plenty of visas, Mexico would agree to be responsible for guaranteeing its own citizens depart Mexico legally.

"willing" to do their part? -- the state's are willing, Mexico doesn't have a choice

the United States is exporting American jobs -- where's the concern for them?

"Mexico is willing to do its part,'' Icaza said. He said the official position of his government is this: If the United States created a temporary worker program with plenty of visas, Mexico would agree to be responsible for guaranteeing its own citizens depart Mexico legally.

Isn't that kind of like saying:

"We'll provide the rapists, if you make your women provide consent."