Thread: Mexican Migrants, leaders celebrate US Senate passage of imm

Mexican migrants, leaders celebrate US Senate passage of immigration reform
(AP)

26 May 2006



NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico - Mexican migrants waiting on the banks of the Rio Grande for the right moment to jump the US border joined their country’s top leaders in applauding immigration reform that cleared the US Senate.


But they also vowed to slip into the United States illegally, with or without help from Washington.

“I think they finally realized that they need us,” said Antonio Ortiz, a 31-year-old from El Salvador who was trying to get back to Austin, Texas, where he worked construction jobs before being deported in March. “Everyone who goes there finds work.”

Ortiz said he swam across the Rio Grande into Laredo, Texas, Thursday morning only to be captured by the US Border Patrol and sent back to Mexico. He said his plan was to slip into American territory and then hope legislation allowing him to simply pay a fine and remain there legally would become law.

The bill offering millions of illegal immigrants a chance at US citizenship passed the US Senate late Thursday 62-36 in a bipartisan compromise. Next come tough negotiations with the House of Representatives, which passed a bill focused on border security that would make all illegal immigrants subject to felony charges, rather than merely civil deportation procedures.

Oscar Martinez, 32, said he arrived at the banks of the Rio Grande after more than three weeks of hopping trains took him from his native El Salvador through Mexico.

“I think the program is going to benefit thousands of families and also the United States,” said Martinez, who worked as a welder in Virginia in 2004.

Martinez said he was determined to cross despite heightened border security, but he also said the prospect of a more-dangerous crossing might make him think twice.

“I’m not going to risk my life,” Martinez said. “I have kids.”

Traveling in California, Mexican President Vicente Fox said the Senate vote made Thursday “truly a day of happiness, a historic day.”

He said it was up to Mexico and the United States to ensure “security and flexibility on an intelligent border that guarantees us tranquility, security and peace.”

US Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza reiterated that the United States is not seeking to “militarize” its border with Mexico _ despite President George W. Bush’s plan to send national guard troops to the region _ and urged Mexicans who want to head north to seek legal visas.

“The death toll of those who have tried and failed to cross the hot, unforgiving desert is already far too high,” Garza said.

The Senate bill was “undoubtedly a victory” for the Fox administration, said Jorge Castaneda, who resigned as Fox’s foreign secretary in January 2003.

“It was he who first suggested this and spoke about the need for a temporary worker program and the need to increase the number of permanent visas,” Castaneda told Mexico City’s W Radio. “But it’s also a triumph for the people there who mobilized, and without whose actions this probably wouldn’t have happened.”

The bill calls for a new guest worker program that would admit 200,000 individuals a year. Once in the United States, they would be permitted for the first time to petition on their own for a green card that confers legal permanent residency, a provision designed to reduce the potential for exploitation by employers.

Under one proposal, migrants who have been in the US for less than seven years would have to return to their homeland to apply, while those who have been in the country for longer could remain.

“If they allow you to be there awhile to work and also allow you to return to your country to see your family _ that would be a good option,” said Christopher Guzman, a 21-year-old Honduran who was trying to get to Ohio. But “if they don’t give me anything, we’re going to continue as (illegal) migrants, we’re going to keep trying.”



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Print this article Email this article

I wouldn't be celebrating so fast if I were them -- the Senate still has to pay the pied piper and they all might be playing a different tune

I don't have a problem with them being happy and being able to make living for their family, but not at the expense of the american taxpayers. Why should we all be forced to adopt them and take care of them. Businesses want them here let them pay their medical, welfare and social services. I think that bill belongs to corporate america.