Thread: Mexico's ambassador in U.S. to discuss major issues

Mexico's ambassador to the U.S. discusses major issues with state leaders
Tyche Hendricks, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, September 12, 2007


Mexico's ambassador to the United States made his first official visit Tuesday to California, meeting with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in Sacramento to discuss trade, immigration, border security and the environment, visiting San Francisco and strengthening ties in the U.S. state that is home to more Mexicans than any other, an estimated 4 million.

In his seven months on the job, Arturo Sarukhan has taken pains to set a new, more pragmatic tone in U.S.-Mexico relations, emphasizing that Mexico must give its citizens a reason not to migrate to the United States, and at the same time working to broaden the conversation between the two countries beyond the intractable immigration debate.

"Comprehensive immigration reform in the United States has to start in Mexico," he said Tuesday in an interview with Chronicle reporters and editors. "Unless Mexico can trigger economic growth and well-paid, sustainable jobs, even with comprehensive reform we won't be able to hold onto skilled and motivated people. Mexico's highest edge in the world today is its human capital, and we're losing it."

Sarukhan, a career diplomat with a master's degree in foreign policy from Johns Hopkins University, touted efforts by President Felipe Calderon to build infrastructure and alleviate poverty in Mexico's southern and central regions, and to increase tax revenue and streamline regulations to help encourage entrepreneurs. Though Calderon's right-of-center National Action Party lacks a majority in Mexico's congress, the new president has had more success in passing legislation than did his predecessor, Vicente Fox, Sarukhan said.

Mexico badly wants the United States to rework its immigration laws to let the country's estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants - 5 million of them Mexican - obtain legal status, and to create a legal avenue for future foreign workers to enter the United States.

But with the failure of such an immigration bill this summer for the second year in a row, the Mexican envoy is turning his attention to other areas - including streamlining cross-border commerce, working out stubborn conflicts over water along the depleted Colorado River and jointly tackling the drug trade.

Sarukhan said he has been in talks with U.S. officials about a stepped-up attack on Mexico's powerful and brutal drug cartels. A forthcoming pact is likely to include expanded intelligence-sharing, and more hardware for Mexico's military and police, but would not put American troops on Mexican soil, as the United States has done in the drug war in Colombia.

"We're talking about how do we in Mexico strengthen our efforts, how do we collaborate at the border, and what does the United States need to do," he said. "Just as drugs move into the United States, so weapons, chemical precursors (like pseudoephedrine, used in the making of methamphetamine) and bulk cash move into Mexico."

Addressing American concerns over the porousness of the 2,000-mile border the two countries share, Sarukhan insisted that undocumented Mexican migrants do not threaten U.S. national security. But Mexico is working to reduce the risk that terrorists might use its soil to attack the United States, he said, screening containers for radioactive material at all Mexican ports and sharing intelligence on foreigners in Mexico from "countries of interest" to the United States.

"If there were to ever be a threat to the United States as a result of lapses with security on the border, the U.S. relationship with Mexico as we know it would be over," Sarukhan said.

In his conversation with The Chronicle, Sarukhan emphasized the importance of the U.S.-Mexico relationship to both countries and said Mexico's relations with California are at the forefront economically, as well as culturally. "We are California's fourth largest buyer of goods," he noted.

Before heading to Sacramento, Sarukhan made a two-day stopover in San Francisco, where he schmoozed with Bay Area leaders, from San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz to honchos from Google, the de Young Museum and the Bay Area Mexican American community. He plans a follow-up visit to Los Angeles and San Diego next month.

San Francisco is "a beacon for its relationship with its immigrant communities," Sarukhan said. "There are a number of incredibly global cities on the world stage and San Francisco is poised to be one of them. It's a melting pot of so many cultures, and that's a powerful statement these days in America."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... e=politics

He's really here to issue orders to his subordinates in the US congress, state and local goverment.

Mexico badly wants the United States to rework its immigration laws to let the country's estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants - 5 million of them Mexican - obtain legal status, and to create a legal avenue for future foreign workers to enter the United States.

Too bad, its not up to the government of the US, its still OUR country and we will have the last say. We don't want your poor, illiterate, breedmares, rapists, child molesting whiners to become citizens, we want them to return to their homeland cesspools and fix their own problems at home.

"We're talking about how do we in Mexico strengthen our efforts, how do we collaborate at the border, and what does the United States need to do," he said.

What does the US need to do? immediately expel all illegal Mexicans and give Mexico a bill for decades of freebies....

Then we MIGHT think about talking to you again....

We're not buying your crap rhetoric anymore senior ambassador. The only reason you want the US to legalize your scum is because mexico's economy would greatly suffer if all those money remittances decreased.
Don't be fooled folks, mexico's economy greatly depends on this money, and it has been proven that money sent home by illegals is the 2nd largest contributor to their GDP, next to oil.

FIX YOUR OWN DAMN COUNTRY SENIOR!

I would like Arnold to ask one question: "How does Mexico deal with their illegal alien problem?"