Thread: Mexican frustration with U.S. immigration policy builds

Friday, November 16, 2007
Mexican frustration with U.S. immigration policy builds

Mexico's president Felipe Calderon announced a media campaign aimed at influencing American public opinion.
By JEREMY SCHWARTZ
COX NEWS SERVICE


MEXICO CITY Anger in Mexico is growing in the wake of a number of new state laws in the United States, including those in Georgia, Oklahoma and Arizona, considered by critics to be anti-Mexican - a shift likely reflected in President Felipe Calderon's verbal lashing this week of U.S. presidential candidates.

In tougher rhetoric towards U.S. immigration policies, Calderon scolded presidential candidates for using migrants as "thematic hostages" and announced a media campaign aimed at influencing American public opinion.

Calderon's comments represented a dramatic departure from the more timid statements of past leaders and were welcomed by many in Mexico.

"I think the current American government has gone too far against illegal Mexicans," said Fernando Garcia, a 36-year-old Mexico City office administrator. "I don't like the raids and how they destroy families (and)... the hate they are generating against Mexicans."

Such sentiment contrasts with the decidedly cooler reaction much of Mexico gave to the millions of immigrants who took to the streets of Washington, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Austin and other U.S. cities in the spring and summer of 2006 to demand an overhaul of immigration laws.

At that time, the seeming indifference and lack of supporting protests in Mexico irritated many migrant rights advocates.

But since then, immigration reform efforts on Capitol Hill have stalled, while a series of stiff state laws were enacted and the U.S. government started building a wall along the border.

In Georgia, new state laws require increased verification of legal status to register a car and hold some jobs. They also require that local officials alert federal immigration agents to any suspected illegal immigrants booked on felony or DUI charges.

Supporters in the United States say such laws are designed to curb illegal migration. But many in Mexico see them as discriminatory, while failing to address the larger issue of U.S. immigration policy.

"Bush is the modern day Hitler, the same as the rest of his party," said Antonio Gonzalez, a 35-year-old Mexico City accountant. "They don't treat the Russians or English or other white Europeans like that, and so for me they are a bunch of racists."

The Calderon administration this week also blasted the U.S.-backed border wall, releasing a study labeling it "medieval," an environmental risk and calling on the U.S. Congress to re-think the idea.

Mexico, which often reacts with anger to even a hint of U.S. meddling in its internal affairs, has been loath to comment so directly on internal U.S. politics in recent years.

"Every day there is more demand for the Mexican government to take a stronger position," said Manuel Angel Castillo, coordinator of the Migration Seminary at the College of Mexico. "The immigration reform generated a lot of expectation, but as we all know that didn't happen. Instead they approved a series of undesirable actions and all these things are now creating a lot of irritation."

At a migrant advocates' conference this week in Mexico City, attendees cited some 170 anti-immigrant measures adopted by local and state governments in the United States. Many said the time had come to directly confront what is increasingly seen as a rising tide of xenophobia.

"Just the idea that our children will live in... humiliation is something we cannot allow," said Alonso Flores, member of the Institute of Mexicans in the Exterior, an agency of the Mexican government that fosters ties with Mexicans living abroad.

His agency estimates that 1 million Mexicans will be deported in the coming year from the United States as a result of the new laws.

Calderon, in a speech to the conference, said a new media campaign would change the "distorted" perceptions Americans have about Mexican workers and build consciousness of the "many contributions they make for the society in which they work and live."

Experts in Mexico say it's too early to tell whether Calderon's comments signal a change in how the Mexican government deals with American politics.

"In the coming weeks and months we will see if (Calderon's) declarations form part of a new strategy," said Luis Escala, a researcher at the Tijuana-based College of the Northern Border.

But Calderon does appear to be taking a more active role in fate of migrants than past presidents, analysts say.

He favors the creation of a kind of anti-defamation league for Mexican migrants in the United States and has supported the idea of building support centers along the border for deported Mexicans. Such centers would offer food, clothing and shelter for the increasing number of Mexican deportees.

Advocates are also pushing for a program to help deportees transition back to life in their homeland.

Much of the frustration in Mexico over the course of immigration legislation has been directed at the Republican Party and its presidential candidates.

Jorge Bustamante, special rapporteur to the United Nations for human rights of migrants, wrote in the Reforma newspaper recently that the leading Republican candidates all "have made their anti-immigrant proposals a conspicuous part of their respective electoral campaigns."

Escala, the researcher, said the timing of Calderon's remarks and the struggle to fight back against perceived anti-immigration attacks, does not come by chance. "The engines of the presidential campaign are starting," he said. "And they are wanting to have an influence."

www.ocregister.com

I recently read an article about a Russian woman who is married to an American she was being deported due to some type of problem in paper work so yes we do deport people with light skin.
I was just talking to a friend of mine and he knows a man from Scotland who wants to stay here but will have to leave as his visa is up.
This is not a race issue by any means. It's a legal issue!

uhmm... can we make a giant broom. Like humungous and sweep all those corrupt politicans and 3rd gangstas - dang, lets just sweep the damn country into the ocean, so it can start over nice and clean and corrupt free.

This way, one of the most prosperous countries with natural resources could actually be a wealthy country and not have to send its dregs to our country.

They smoke entirely too much wackey weed in Mehjico which seems to give them the illusions of power in the USA.

Deal with your own immigration mess Calderon and food,jobs for your citizens and I guarantee you will have little time to critisize your benevolent neighbor !

I don't know if anybody paid any attention when I posted the numbers for legal immigration. I want to know, if the US is anti-Hispanic, how come Mexico and Latin American countries get more legal immigrant visas than the rest of the world combined?

Go ahead with your media campaign Felipe-Invader in Chief, we don't mind you helping us recruit more members. He must think Americans are easily fooled like Mexicans are. He is only going to end up even more frustrated.

Originally Posted by jean

The Calderon administration this week also blasted the U.S.-backed border wall, releasing a study labeling it "medieval,"

The wall is a medieval solution to a medieval Mexican culture.
If you don't like it modernize your culture.

They just don't want them back.

THIS ARTICLE REALLY MAKES ME MAD. WHEN IS OUR GOVERNMENT GOING TO GROW A BACKBONE AND TELL MEXICO AND THEIR IGNORANT PRESIDENT TO STOP MEDDLING IN OUR GOVERNMENT'S BUSINESS? THEY ALL NEED A COPY OF THIS ARTICLE UP IN WASHINGTON. THEY ARE ACTUALLY TRYING TO RUN OUR GOVERNMENT AND THESE FOOLS ARE LETTING THEM GET BY WITH IT. AND, WHAT MEDIA DOES THIS MAN PLAN TO USE TO TRY AND INFLUENCE AMERICANS? THEY HAVE THEIR MILITARY ON THEIR SOUTHERN BORDER AND WE CAN'T BUILD A FENCE ON OUR BORDER WITH THEM? THIS MAKES MY BLOOD BOIL. IF HE FEELS THAT HIS PEOPLE ARE BEING MISTREATED THEN HE CAN COME AND GET THEM. THEY WERE NOT INVITED HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE. THE REST OF AMERICA HAD BETTER WAKE UP TO WHATS GOING ON AS FAR AS ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IS CONCERNED. I WISH THERE WAS A WAY THAT WE THE PEOPLE COULD TELL THIS MAN TO MIND HIS OWN BUSINESS AND TO STAY OUT OF OURS!

Originally Posted by LadyStClaire

[b]THIS ARTICLE REALLY MAKES ME MAD. WHEN IS OUR GOVERNMENT GOING TO GROW A BACKBONE AND TELL MEXICO AND THEIR IGNORANT PRESIDENT TO STOP MEDDLING IN OUR GOVERNMENT'S BUSINESS?

After "We the People" remove the Traitors from office who collaborate with the Invader in Chief.