MEXICO-US:
Calderón Seeks Better
Lot for Migrants
By Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, (IPS)
- Mexican President
Felipe Calderón is
visiting the United
States this week to
plead the cause of
Mexican immigrants, who
are increasingly
harassed and mistreated
by the U.S. authorities.
His four-day visit,
which commenced Sunday,
comes at a time when the
six million undocumented
Mexicans living in the
United States are the
targets of a wave of
raids and deportations.
Work also continues
apace on a wall along
the border with Mexico
to keep foreigners out,
and there is no hope of
any discussions of
immigration reform until
after the U.S.
presidential elections
in November, when
President George W.
Bush’s successor will be
chosen.
Neither the Mexican
government nor analysts
expect that Calderón’s
trip will have much of
an impact on the
antagonistic climate
faced by Mexicans and
other Latin Americans on
U.S. soil.
The goal, for now, is
only to visit
immigrants’
organizations and
present the president’s
plans for consular
protection, and to
defend their rights
before the authorities.
Shortly before this
week’s visit, Calderón
said there was "an
atmosphere full of
prejudice" against
immigrants, and an
"anti-Mexican climate
that benefits no one."
The worst thing two
countries can do is to
make our people think
that our neighbours are
our enemies, he said in
an interview with the
New York Times.
In the view of analyst
Sergio Peláez,
Calderón’s trip comes at
an inauspicious time,
"but later on would be
worse because the U.S.
presidential elections
will be entering their
decisive phase" and the
agenda will be
overcrowded, so better
now than never.
"I think Calderón’s
intention is for
Mexicans in the U.S. not
to feel that they have
been abandoned, now that
the situation is so
difficult. He could even
gain political capital
in Mexico," Peláez, an
expert in international
politics at the National
Autonomous University of
Mexico (UNAM), told IPS.
This is Calderón’s first
official visit to the
United States since he
took office in December
2006. It will not
include meetings with
Bush administration
officials. The two
presidents have a
meeting scheduled for
April, during a North
American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA)
meeting which also
includes Canada.
Calderón’s tour began in
New York, where he met
with United Nations
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
and Timothy Geithner,
the president of the
Federal Reserve Bank of
New York, as well as
leaders of the Mexican
community.
The other cities he is
due to visit before his
departure on Thursday
are Chicago, Illinois
and Los Angeles and
Sacramento, in
California, which are
home to large numbers of
Mexican immigrants.
According to the U.N.
Special Rapporteur on
the human rights of
immigrants, Jorge
Bustamente, "latinos"
have been facing a
climate of "unacceptable
xenophobia" for several
years in the U.S., and
in 2008 conditions could
become even worse.
In 2007, the U.S.
deported 513,000
Mexicans, some of whom
had been arrested at
their workplaces, on the
streets, or in bus
terminals and airports.
Secretary of Homeland
Security Michael
Chertoff said on Jan. 31
that President Bush is
asking Congress for a 19
percent increase in the
funding earmarked for
border security and
combating illegal
immigration.
The Institute for
Mexicans Abroad (IME),
made up of Mexican
employers living in the
U.S., and some diplomats
reported that in 2007
around 170 measures
aimed against
undocumented immigrants
were implemented,
including prohibiting
foreigners who do not
have residence permits
from obtaining a driving
licence, renting a home
or receiving medical
services.
These measures are
separate from a law
signed by Bush in
October 2006, ordering
the wall on the border
with Mexico to be
extended, from 112 to
1,226 kilometres in
length.
The Mexican Foreign
Ministry reported that
447 Mexicans died trying
to enter the U.S. at
different points along
the border in 2007, 485
in 2006, and 516 in
2005.
Calderón said he hoped
that the next U.S.
administration and
Congress will have "a
broader, more positive
and more rational vision
of the issue of
migration" than the
political leaders now in
power.
"I’m not denying the
right of every country
to have its own laws and
apply them," but a
person’s human rights
"are valid, no matter
what their immigration
status may be," he said.
The three main
presidential hopefuls in
the U.S. race,
Republican Senator John
McCain and Democrats
Barack Obama and Hillary
Clinton, have indicated
that they approve the
idea of an immigration
reform bill that would
include legalizing some
of those who are
currently working in the
U.S. without documents.
The U.S. Congress failed
to pass an immigration
reform bill in early
2007 that would have
toughened immigration
controls, but also
created the opportunity
for undocumented
immigrants to gain legal
status and, therefore,
freedom from
persecution.
Some 11 million
Mexican-born people live
in the U.S., of whom six
million do not have
residence permits and
live in danger of
deportation.
In November, the Mexican
government announced
that it would open two
new consulates in the
U.S., bringing the total
number to 52, and that
all consulates would
beef up their legal
teams to help migrants
suffering from
discrimination, as well
as providing aid and
comfort if they are
arrested with a view to
being deported.
Awareness-raising
campaigns will also be
launched in the U.S.
media to improve the
image of immigrants and
"correct distorted
perceptions," the
government said.
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