Mexico blasts new US Immigration legislation
The new immigration and identification rules in the United States, known as "Real ID," could not solve the problems of illegal immigration, said a Mexican official on Wednesday.

"Building walls is not the best way to attend to the challenges we share on our common border," said Ruben Aguilar, spokesman of the Mexican Presidential Office.

"The president (of Mexico) laments these measures, which are a matter of sovereignty, but he laments them," he told the press, referring to the US immigration reforms approved by the US Senate with the support of the Bush administration.

The Mexican government will continue to use diplomatic and political ways to procure legal, safe, orderly migration with respect to human rights, he added.

The law, prompted by Republican James Sensenbrenner, chairman of the Judicial Committee of the House of Representatives, is said to be aimed at helping protect against the entry of terrorists into the country.

According to the new legislation, the US government may take new controls on foreign-born people, including tougher rules for them to obtain drivers' licenses, as well as the construction of anew wall along the border with Mexico.

The Mexican government has pushed for agreements with the US administration since 2000 to legalize some 5 million illegal Mexican immigrants there.