http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/miami/12553.html

Respect for migrants urged following U.S. plan


El Universal
November 04, 2005
Mexico said Thursday that it hopes the rights of immigrants will be respected as the United States implements a new plan to bolster border security.

The Foreign Relations Secretariat said in a statement that it will closely monitor the application of the Secure Border Initiative, announced Wednesday in Houston by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

"Through the embassy and the 46 consulates in the United States, (the ministry) will be very attentive to seeing that the application of this and of any other initiative be respectful of the rights of Mexicans," the communiqué said. {Mexican invaders have no legal rights in this country}

"The management of the immigration phenomenon and attention to the security challenges must be carried out under the principle of shared responsibility," the statement said. "It is in the interest of both countries to have a secure border, for which it is necessary to give precedence to bilateral cooperation."

In his speech Wednesday presenting the Secure Border Initiative, Chertoff said the aim of the program was to achieve a situation where "we will have an extremely high probability of detecting, responding to and interdicting illegal crossings of our borders."

Specific points of the plan include adding roughly 1,500 new agents to the Border Patrol and providing them with improved equipment and technology.

Most observers in Mexico saw Chertoff's announcement as heralding a harder U.S. line on illegal immigration.

Washington's move to tighten the borders come as the Mexican government continues to lobby both Congress and the White House for a reform to allow what Mexico describes as immigration that is "legal, orderly, safe and respectful of human rights."

Meanwhile, Catholic bishops from both sides of the border gathered Wednesday along the Rio Grande between Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas, to pray for the migrants who have died in the region while trying to reach the United States.

An estimated 400 Mexicans die every year in the attempt to slip across the border, many of them perishing of exposure in the rough arid territory of the southwestern United States.

================================================== ===========

rights of immigrants: http://www.americanpatrol.com/REFERENCE ... randa.html