Mexicans chide U.S. over immigration

Mexicans chide U.S. over immigration By LISA J. ADAMS, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 1 minute ago



Opinion makers and migrant advocates in Mexico said Friday that the collapse of U.S. immigration reform plans hurts Mexican workers, U.S. employers and anti-terrorism efforts.

President Bush's plan to legalize as many as 12 million unlawful immigrants from around the world while fortifying the border failed in the U.S. Senate on Thursday.

"This is very bad news for Mexican migrants in the U.S.," said Jorge Bustamante, special rapporteur to the U.N. human rights commission for migrants. "It means the continuation and probably a worsening of the migrants' vulnerable conditions."

The Rev. Luis Kendziersky, director of a shelter for migrants in the border city of Tijuana, said it appeared senators "are focused more on the political game than on the real needs of the people."

"According to polls, the majority of the people (in the U.S.) want legality with concessions for undocumented migrants, but the radicals make a lot of noise," he said.

Some major newspapers called the Senate's action hypocritical.

"It's obvious that the politicians of that country want laborers, but they are not willing to legalize the labor that they need," El Universal said in an editorial.

Migrants "will continue to be subjected to extraordinary means of discrimination," the daily paper said, adding that a "subculture of illegality" in border crossings also does nothing to aid the U.S. fight against terrorism.

An editorial in the left-leaning La Jornada called the decision a "triple shipwreck" — a failure for the Bush administration, the United States and Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

"The most powerful country on the planet will have to continue living, for many more months, with the scandalous contradiction between its laws and the real needs of its economy, thirsty for cheap labor to guarantee the international competitiveness of its exports, especially in agriculture."

Calderon has been less vocal in demanding immigration reform than was his predecessor Vicente Fox, whose campaign for changes in U.S. policy failed.

The president instead has focused strengthening Mexico's economy to stem the flow of workers north, while criticizing the 700-mile (1,130-kilometer) barrier Congress approved to increase security on the border with Mexico.

On Thursday, Calderon called the Senate's decision a "grave error" and a failure to find a "sensible, rational, legal solution to the migration problem."

Authorities on both sides of the border estimate that more than 11 million Mexicans live in the United States, as many of 6 million of them illegally.

Not everyone in Mexico was disappointed by the death of the bill, which would have created a system to weed out illegal workers from U.S. jobs.

Al Rojas, spokesman for the advocacy group Front of Mexicans Abroad, said the law "would have imposed prejudices, treating migrants like criminals and judging them."

"Faced with a bad law, we preferred that they approved nothing," he said in a telephone interview.

Roberto Heatley, a 61-year-old engineering consultant from Mexico City, said it was "a shame that they don't pay due attention to this problem in the United States."

"Delaying it until 2009 does not solve the problem."

What a load of horse ****. Migrant or nnot I am fed up with them coming acorss and taking advantage of a system the do not deserve to be a part of and have not taken the proper steps to do so . In the mena time they have nop urge to take the proper steps. They want to skip across, make babies and suck our tax dollars out. That is to put it bluntly. If they wanted to better their lives they would take the proper steps. As far as I am concerned rounding up the immigrants and putting them on buses back where they came from is the way to go and as a result companies will be forced to up the pay scales for jobs that the migrant workers would do normally and this would better life here in America.

Let our Government show it has the will to build a wall and enforce the existing laws in some meaningful way

and THEN

and THEN

and THEN

come back in a year or two and talk about the needs of the US for immigation, and what can be done for the mutual benefit of the country and those hard working *otherwise* law abiding illegals here now, and I am sure there will be plenty of room for compromise.

The American people are NOT anti-immigrant - but correctly perceive the situation has been left to fester with the path of least resistance to cheap labor with zero thought (or at least zero action) as to what other (negative) consequences might be in connection to an open border with Mexico.

This proposed bill is not being bought by the public and enough of their representatives, because people have a legitimate and in my view, probably correct, perception that these pro-illegal immigration lobby and politicians are not serious about their promises that we don't face the same (but worse) situation 5, 10 and 20 years from now.

These politicians - Particularly Teddy Kennedy -are offering another emphemeral Al Gore "Lock Box" that will be undermined, ignored and forgotten at the first opportunity.

T

What is with migrant? Its called an illegal alien, not a "Migrant" :roll:

I agree with you NWA. They act like they earned their rights in this country by swimming a river and hopping fences. Frustrating. they do not belong here as in ILLEGAL!!!!