Hey Mexico, STFU and Sit Down, Act Like a Real Country

[PittsburghAfterDark]

Mexico Threatens Suits Over Guard Patrols

By MARINA MONTEMAYOR, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 40 minutes ago
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - Mexico said Tuesday that it would file lawsuits in U.S. courts if National Guard troops on the border become directly involved in detaining migrants.

Mexican border officials also said they worried that sending troops to heavily trafficked regions would push illegal migrants into more perilous areas of the U.S.-Mexican border to avoid detection.

President Bush announced Monday that he would send 6,000 National Guard troops to the 2,000-mile border, but they would provide intelligence and surveillance support to Border Patrol agents, not catch and detain illegal immigrants.

"If there is a real wave of rights abuses, if we see the National Guard starting to directly participate in detaining people ... we would immediately start filing lawsuits through our consulates," Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez told a Mexico City radio station. He did not offer further details.

Mexican officials worry the crackdown will lead to more deaths. Since Washington toughened security in Texas and California in 1994, migrants have flooded Arizona's hard-to-patrol desert and deaths have spiked. Migrant groups estimate 500 people died trying to cross the border in 2005. The Border Patrol reported 473 deaths in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.

In Ciudad Juarez, Julieta Nunez Gonzalez, local representative of the Mexican government's National Immigration Institute, said Tuesday she will ask the government to send its migrant protection force, known as Grupo Beta, to more remote sections of the border.

Sending the National Guard "will not stop the flow of migrants, to the contrary, it will probably go up," as people try to get into the U.S. in the hope that they could benefit from a possible amnesty program, Nunez said.

Juan Canche, 36, traveled more than 1,200 miles to the border from the southern town of Izamal and said nothing would stop him from trying to cross.

"Even with a lot of guards and soldiers in place, we have to jump that puddle," said Canche, referring to the drought-stricken Rio Grande dividing Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas. "My family is hungry and there is no work in my land. I have to risk it."

Some Mexican newspapers criticized President Vicente Fox for not taking a stronger stand against the measure, even though Fox called Bush to express his concerns.

A political cartoon in the Mexico City newspaper Reforma depicted Bush as a gorilla carrying a club with a flattened Fox stuck to it.

Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, said Tuesday that Mexico accepted Bush's statement that the sending in the National Guard didn't mean militarizing the area. He also said Mexico remained "optimistic" that the U.S. Senate would approve an immigration reform "in the interests of both countries."

Aguilar noted that Bush expressed support for the legalization of some immigrants and implementation of a guest worker program.

"This is definitely not a militarization," said Aguilar, who also dismissed as "absolutely false" rumors that Mexico would send its own troops to the border in response.

Bush has said sending the National Guard is intended as a stopgap measure while the Border Patrol builds up resources to more effectively secure the border.

In Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas, Honduran Antonio Auriel said he would make it into the U.S.

"Soldiers on the border? That won't stop me," he said. "I'll swim the river and jump the wall. I'm going to arrive in the United States."
Link (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060516/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_us_immigration_6)

There is no emoticon for what I'm feeling.

[rodeojones903]

They really want people to be pissed with them, don't they.

[E-Z-B]

I agree with protection of the borders like this, but I'll believe it when I see it working like it should.

[PittsburghAfterDark]

You and me both EZB. I have no faith in the abilities of our political leaders of any party to address this issue. The growing Hispanic voting base has everyone quaking in their boots and none of them will do the right thing as the result. It's going to be bloody political revolution for incumbents if they do not do the right thing. This isn't an issue that voters will let people waffle on. The American people get it, it's an easy issue to grasp.

Politicians are vastly understimating the outrage in this country over this issue.

[E-Z-B]

Yeah, I'm just worried that they'll send the Guard down for publicity purposes only. You know, make Americans THINK that we're protecting our borders. A little skirmish here, and there, and everyone's happy. But we really don't know how effectively their protecting it.

[Little-Acorn]

The Mexican government has the authority to send their troops anywhere they want in their country. I have no problem with that. I hope they do send their troops to the border, as long as they stay on the Mexican side. That's what the border is for, remember? That will make it harder for the illegal immigrants to sneak across unnoticed. It will also make it harder for the Mexican government to go on pretending they do not support those illegals' actions in crossing our border against our laws.

A win-win situation. Bring it on.

[Labrocca]

Politicians are vastly understimating the outrage in this country over this issue.


You may be right PAD but I am one of those on the right that see this from the middle. Personally I think it's almost a non-issue and was created by the Democrats under a "security" problem from Republicans...then it quickly transformed into "illegal immigrants". Seriously I don't see this anywhere near as important as our current Energy Crisis. Unemployment is so damn low who cares about illegal immigrants working here. For some reason I get the feeling lots of this is a racial issue and I am really not one to bring up the race card but in this case I just can't see what the real problem would be? Yeah it can be noted that's the border isn't secure against terrorists but neither is Canada or the coasts. I don't think our borders will ever be secure.

I think this is going to be a lose-lose situation for both parties as PAD suggested. No one has come up with a solution that's viable...and that's because there isn't one.

[PittsburghAfterDark]

When I was a teenager I went on an Outward Bound canoe trip in northern Minnesota in the Boundary Waters. They were a countless series of lakes that went over and back across the Canadian border remember Minnesota saying "Land of 10,000 Lakes"? It's not a lie.

From an infiltration/security standpoint they were 100% impossible to defend from a 4-6 man group intent on doing harm.

This issue isn't racist and to me you draw the line in the sand and say enough. We're not going to defend against a terrorist team crossing the border, flat out it can't happen. However unless you curb the average influx of 33,000 illegal immigrants a day your nation is doomed. That's what this issue is to me.

Will a fence and increased security stop people from crossing illegally? No.

However if you curb that number to 10,000 a day as opposed to 33,000 a day it's worth every damn penny.

[Churchel]

Until we set some sort of standard for companies who import foreign made goods to america that postively impacts their employees we will never put an end to immigration.

[KrAzY3]

Until we set some sort of standard for companies who import foreign made goods to america that postively impacts their employees we will never put an end to immigration.



The problem isn't immigration, immigration is a good thing. The problem is a influx of illegal immigration so signifigant that it is greater than legal immigration.

I don't think you'll see much of anyone on either side of this issue saying they are anti-immigration. They might want more or less restrictions, but most Americans believe in immigration. The question becomes do we want to welcome people that are getting here illegally? Do we want to allow illegal immigrants to get on our social programs, and for their parents to get on our social programs (under the senate bill, not only would it put ten million illegals on a path to citizenship, it would make it easier for them to bring their parents. Estimated cost for their parents alone would be 30 billion every year, this is for low income workers parent's mind you.). The question becomes what type of people do we want here? Do we want the intelligent immigrants? The well educated? Because as it stands now it is very difficult for them to get here. We've created a double standard that the senate bill is reinforcing. Poorly educated people who do low income jobs can come here, intelligent people with PHDs will have a much more difficult time including have to find a business to sponsor them (the low income immigrants on the farce of a guest worker program can self sponsor themselves into citizenship).

This isn't anti-immigration, the heart of this issue comes down to what types of immigrants we want to have and our right to choose who we allow to become citizens.