Post by PintoBean on Mar 28, 2006 21:36:49 GMT -5
Mexico Cheers Passage of Immigration Bill
By Mark Stevenson
The Associated Press, March 28, 2006
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/28/AR2006032800206.html?sub=AR
Mexico City (AP) -- Mexicans cheered the proposal approved Monday by the Senate Judiciary Committee to legalize undocumented migrants and provide temporary work visas, and credited huge marches of migrants across the United States as the decisive factor behind the vote.
Mexican President Vicente Fox said the vote was the result of five years of work dating to the start of his presidential term in 2000, and puts Mexico one step closer toward the government's goal of 'legalization for everyone' who works in the United States.
'My recognition and respect for all the Hispanics and all the Mexicans who have made their voice heard,' Fox said. 'We saw them turn out this weekend all across the United States, and that's going to count for a lot as we move forward.'
Some Mexican media outlets were even more euphoric, predicting final approval for the committee bill as drafted, and suggesting the weekend demonstrations showed Mexico still holds some sway over former territories which it lost in the 1846-48 Mexican-American War.
'With all due respect to Uncle Sam, this shows that Los Angeles has never stopped being ours,' reporter Alberto Tinoco said on the Televisa television network's nightly news broadcast, referring to a Saturday march in Los Angeles that drew an estimated 500,000, mainly Mexicans.
But U.S. ambassador Tony Garza warned Mexicans on Monday that the proposal still faces a long, difficult path through Congress.
'The debate will no doubt be heated and at times contentious,' Garza wrote in an open letter distributed in Mexico City. 'The debate in the Senate is only one part of the lengthy process.'
The bill is designed to strengthen enforcement of U.S. borders, regulate the flow into the country of so-called guest workers and determine the legal future of the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the United States illegally.
The bill would double the Border Patrol and authorizes a 'virtual wall' of unmanned vehicles, cameras and sensors to monitor the U.S.-Mexico border. It also allows more visas for nurses and agriculture workers, and shelters humanitarian organizations from prosecution if they provide non-emergency assistance to illegal residents.
The most controversial provision would permit illegal aliens currently in the country to apply for citizenship without first having to return home, a process that would take at least six years.
Fox has been pushing for a migration accord that would grant some form of legal status to many of the estimated 6 million undocumented Mexicans in the United States. He is likely to bring up the topic when he meets with President Bush starting Thursday in Cancun.
Although a bill granting amnesty to illegal immigrants is unlikely to be approved by Congress, Fox remains hopeful that at least a guest-worker program will be put in place before he leaves office on Dec. 1.
If the United States approves such a program, it would bolster Fox's image and aid the prospects of Felipe Calderon, presidential candidate for Fox's National Action Party, or PAN, said George Grayson, a Mexico expert at the College of William & Mary.
'Fox is looking for some way to be remembered in history,' Grayson said.
Illegal migration has emerged as a significant issue in the campaigns of Mexico's three major presidential hopefuls for the July 2 elections, and the United States has asked Mexico to do more to strengthen security along their common border.
Protesters build mock wall outside U.S. Embassy in Mexico to protest immigration bill
By Marco Ugarte
The Associated Press, March 26, 2006
www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20060326-1706-mexico-us-immigrationprotest.html
Mexico City (AP) -- About 50 students used cardboard boxes to build a small wall in front of the gates of the U.S. Embassy here Sunday, protesting a proposed law that would extend fences along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The students, some waving Communist Party flags, covered their makeshift wall with anti-American graffiti and likenesses of Latin American leftist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. One poster showed a manipulated picture of U.S. President George W. Bush doing a Nazi salute under a swastika insignia.
The embassy is located along the Mexican capital's stylish Paseo de la Reforma Boulevard.
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation that would make it a felony to be in the U.S. illegally, impose new penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants, require churches to check the legal status of people they help, and erect fences along one-third of the U.S.-Mexican border.
The Senate begins discussing the proposals this week.
At least 10 million Mexican citizens are believed to be living in the United States. U.S. authorities believe about half of them are there illegally.
The small protest in Mexico City came a day after more than half a million people marched in downtown Los Angeles to protest crackdowns on illegal immigration.
That protest was the largest of similar marches that drew 50,000 people in Denver and several thousand in the California capital of Sacramento and Charlotte, North Carolina.
Bush on Saturday called for legislation that does not force America to choose between being a welcoming society and a lawful one. He sides with business leaders who want legislation to let some of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants stay in the country and work for a set period of time.
Others, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, say national security concerns should drive immigration reform.
By Mark Stevenson
The Associated Press, March 28, 2006
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/28/AR2006032800206.html?sub=AR
Mexico City (AP) -- Mexicans cheered the proposal approved Monday by the Senate Judiciary Committee to legalize undocumented migrants and provide temporary work visas, and credited huge marches of migrants across the United States as the decisive factor behind the vote.
Mexican President Vicente Fox said the vote was the result of five years of work dating to the start of his presidential term in 2000, and puts Mexico one step closer toward the government's goal of 'legalization for everyone' who works in the United States.
'My recognition and respect for all the Hispanics and all the Mexicans who have made their voice heard,' Fox said. 'We saw them turn out this weekend all across the United States, and that's going to count for a lot as we move forward.'
Some Mexican media outlets were even more euphoric, predicting final approval for the committee bill as drafted, and suggesting the weekend demonstrations showed Mexico still holds some sway over former territories which it lost in the 1846-48 Mexican-American War.
'With all due respect to Uncle Sam, this shows that Los Angeles has never stopped being ours,' reporter Alberto Tinoco said on the Televisa television network's nightly news broadcast, referring to a Saturday march in Los Angeles that drew an estimated 500,000, mainly Mexicans.
But U.S. ambassador Tony Garza warned Mexicans on Monday that the proposal still faces a long, difficult path through Congress.
'The debate will no doubt be heated and at times contentious,' Garza wrote in an open letter distributed in Mexico City. 'The debate in the Senate is only one part of the lengthy process.'
The bill is designed to strengthen enforcement of U.S. borders, regulate the flow into the country of so-called guest workers and determine the legal future of the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the United States illegally.
The bill would double the Border Patrol and authorizes a 'virtual wall' of unmanned vehicles, cameras and sensors to monitor the U.S.-Mexico border. It also allows more visas for nurses and agriculture workers, and shelters humanitarian organizations from prosecution if they provide non-emergency assistance to illegal residents.
The most controversial provision would permit illegal aliens currently in the country to apply for citizenship without first having to return home, a process that would take at least six years.
Fox has been pushing for a migration accord that would grant some form of legal status to many of the estimated 6 million undocumented Mexicans in the United States. He is likely to bring up the topic when he meets with President Bush starting Thursday in Cancun.
Although a bill granting amnesty to illegal immigrants is unlikely to be approved by Congress, Fox remains hopeful that at least a guest-worker program will be put in place before he leaves office on Dec. 1.
If the United States approves such a program, it would bolster Fox's image and aid the prospects of Felipe Calderon, presidential candidate for Fox's National Action Party, or PAN, said George Grayson, a Mexico expert at the College of William & Mary.
'Fox is looking for some way to be remembered in history,' Grayson said.
Illegal migration has emerged as a significant issue in the campaigns of Mexico's three major presidential hopefuls for the July 2 elections, and the United States has asked Mexico to do more to strengthen security along their common border.
Protesters build mock wall outside U.S. Embassy in Mexico to protest immigration bill
By Marco Ugarte
The Associated Press, March 26, 2006
www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20060326-1706-mexico-us-immigrationprotest.html
Mexico City (AP) -- About 50 students used cardboard boxes to build a small wall in front of the gates of the U.S. Embassy here Sunday, protesting a proposed law that would extend fences along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The students, some waving Communist Party flags, covered their makeshift wall with anti-American graffiti and likenesses of Latin American leftist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. One poster showed a manipulated picture of U.S. President George W. Bush doing a Nazi salute under a swastika insignia.
The embassy is located along the Mexican capital's stylish Paseo de la Reforma Boulevard.
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation that would make it a felony to be in the U.S. illegally, impose new penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants, require churches to check the legal status of people they help, and erect fences along one-third of the U.S.-Mexican border.
The Senate begins discussing the proposals this week.
At least 10 million Mexican citizens are believed to be living in the United States. U.S. authorities believe about half of them are there illegally.
The small protest in Mexico City came a day after more than half a million people marched in downtown Los Angeles to protest crackdowns on illegal immigration.
That protest was the largest of similar marches that drew 50,000 people in Denver and several thousand in the California capital of Sacramento and Charlotte, North Carolina.
Bush on Saturday called for legislation that does not force America to choose between being a welcoming society and a lawful one. He sides with business leaders who want legislation to let some of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants stay in the country and work for a set period of time.
Others, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, say national security concerns should drive immigration reform.