Thread: Mexico’s Other Immigration Crisis

http://www.mexidata.info/id1182.html

Monday, December 25, 2006
Mexico’s Other Immigration Crisis

By Kenneth Emmond

What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, as the old saying goes.

That’s not the way it works for the two sides of Mexico’s immigration coin.

Whatever “rights” an illegal alien may enjoy in the country that he or she has unlawfully entered is open to debate, and indeed is being debated. However, there’s general agreement that those rights include not being robbed, beaten, or raped.

Even those rights are being denied to thousands of clandestine border-crossers into southern Mexico from Central America. Often the perpetrators work for the federal immigration department.

Even as Mexican lawyers and politicians indignantly demand fair and legal treatment for the estimated 12 million of their countrymen who migrated illegally to the United States, other countrymen, including real or ersatz civil servants, are engaging in robbery, extortion, and even raping of Central Americans who sneak into Mexico.

The motivation for illegal Central American immigrants is identical to that of Mexican illegals going north: they risk life and limb in hopes of jobs, improved living standards, and better prospects for their children.

But their trek is an order of magnitude more dangerous than the perilous one Mexicans make to the north. Like Mexicans, they have to evade American border controls, but before that they must avoid falling into the hands of criminals — or Mexican authorities.

The cover story of the November 27 edition of the Spanish-language weekly newsmagazine Milenio contains a chilling inventory of horror of things done to hapless Central Americans who run afoul of Mexican immigration officials.

The main focus is on the state of Oaxaca, but it also says abuses perpetrated by federal or state officials occur in Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Sonora, Chihuahua, Veracruz, Puebla, and Tabasco. No illegal immigrant is “safe” until they cross into the United States — and we know what kind of safety that is!

What happens to those who are caught in Mexico is scandalous. They are subjected to mistreatment beyond what even the most aggressive of those self-appointed American border vigilantes, the Minutemen, would do.

Many illegals make their way north from the Guatemala border by climbing aboard moving freight trains. Sometimes one of them loses an arm or a leg when an immigration official or railway policeman pushes them off.

The situation is so bad it’s attracted the attention of the United Nations Committee for the Protection of All Migratory Workers and their Families.

Even Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) decries the violence against illegal immigrants in southern Mexico.

“We cannot maintain in our law a punishment of two years in prison for foreigners who enter our country illegally,” said Mauricio Farah, a CNDH official.

Central American illegals do have allies. One such person is Jose Alejandro Solalinde, coordinator of the Pastoral of Human Mobility in the diocese of Tehuantepec. Solalinde offers food and shelter for fugitives who find him.

Solalinde, called “The Phantom” because he dresses in white, says government officials treat Central Americans “like animals.” For them, he says, it’s a “business,” and they don’t care whether their victims live or die.

“We know of one family that was murdered, from El Salvador, as a reprisal because one of their countrymen complained about the actions of some officials from public security.”

He added, “I don’t know who can control them. There’s no law here.”

In Chiapas, Hipolato Treviño, the local immigration authority in the village of Talisman, accuses the immigrants of corrupting the officers with offers of money.

“The immigrants come offering money to the authorities so they can pass through,” he said.

As is often the case in Mexico, there is a law, seldom invoked, that addresses the problem on paper, the Law to Prevent and Eradicate Discrimination.

President Felipe Calderon is aware of the problem. In a December 13 speech he acknowledged that government officials subject Central American immigrants to unacceptable abuse.

“Just as we demand respect for the human rights of our countrymen, we have the ethical and legal responsibility to respect the human rights and dignity of those who come from Central and South America and who cross our southern border,” he said.

Calderon’s “to do” list as a fledgling president in a troubled country is long and daunting. However, one effective way to strengthen his case for better treatment of Mexican immigrants in the United States is to crack down on the abuses visited upon illegal immigrants in his own country.

In other words, sweeten the sauce for the gander.

Alot of South Americans dispise mexicans in their country because of this. I was told this by my daughter in-law who is Costa Rican. She says fishing boats go out from their coast and never return. Mexicans steal the boats and kill the crews. This she said is common knowledge in South America. The Mexican Government is so corrupt that they can't even deal with them legally. She said they fear for their lives when they have to travel threw Mexico. She said she always flys and never wants to go to Mexico because of this. My son was thinking of driving to Coasta Rica She was so upset with the thought. They even do this to Americans who don't have documents or money to pay their way threw. They just dissapear. They also have stiff laws about immigration that they enforce even from Americans. Check out this site for professionals that want to move to Mexico. http://www.mexperience.com/liveandwork/ ... ionalsMake me want to have open boarder and have them part of the North American Union! Yea Right!