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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Mexico furious at tough US law on migrants |
| 2005-05-14 |
| Mexico has reacted furiously to a bill signed into law by the US this week that would fund a border wall and prevent illegal Mexican migrants from obtaining US driving licences. President Vicente Fox said he would lodge a diplomatic complaint, and was considering complaints to multilateral bodies if Mexico could not unable to resolve the problem bilaterally. In the US, leaders of the Mexican community threatened to strike to send a message to US employers that they could not survive without cheap Mexican labour. Santiago Creel, Mexico's interior secretary, said the "Real ID" law was "negative, inconvenient, and obstructionist". "Building walls doesn't help anyone build a good neighbourhood," he said. "Taking away the possibility of obtaining driving licences for people who are working in legal jobs, who pay their taxes there, who send remittances home here, seems to us to be an extreme measure, particularly given the new understanding that we thought we had after the re-election of President Bush." Andrés Manuel López Obrador, mayor of Mexico City, supported Mr Fox's stance. He said the problem of growing immigration could be "resolved by encouraging development in Mexico and Central America, not by building walls and using the border control". Since 2002, Mexico has adopted a popular policy of issuing undocumented labourers with consular identity cards, which are accepted as proof of identity by many US states for issuing driving licences, and for opening bank accounts. Under the new law, this would no longer be possible. The immigration provisions approved by Congress were attached by House Republicans to a bill that will provide more than $80bn for the war in Iraq this year, giving lawmakers little choice but to support it. The White House, which at first opposed the new restrictions, supported them when it became clear they would pass Congress in spite of administration opposition. President George W. Bush has said he wants to deal with illegal immigration by creating a temporary guest worker programme. But many Republicans are using the anxiety about terrorism to push for a crackdown on illegal immigrants. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #15 Latin American countries in general seem to alternate between feudalists pretending to be capitalists and feudalists pretending to be communists. Their new strategy is that it'll only work if they can convert the US to feudalism too. |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2005-05-14 18:39 |
| #14 the Euro won't look so good soon....IMNSHO |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-05-14 16:36 |
| #13 Is it just me or does it seem like every single contry that was once part of th Spanish Empire in the New World is an economic basket case with one industry economies with the possible exception of Chile. At least Ecuador had the godd sense to give up their own currency and adopt the dollar. Don't be suprised if some others in Central and South America do something similiar except it will be the Euro just so they get the satisfaction of telling Uncle Sugar to go F**k Himself |
| Posted by: Cheaderhead 2005-05-14 16:08 |
| #12 the money illegals send home to Latin America (90% Mexico) amounts to over $30 Billion in funds lost to the US economy. Annually. That ranks 2nd in Mexico's sources of income, after tourism. Closing the border to illegals is the answer, and if Mexico doesn't like it, we can shut off tourism til teh gov't falls, and our CIA minions install an acceptable substitute. Makes closing the borders sound downright reasonable, right Vicente? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-05-14 15:56 |
| #11 We can go without cheap labor longer than you can go without a paycheck, pal... |
| Posted by: Angack Ulenter3693 2005-05-14 14:33 |
| #10 For some odd reason that background color came out dark red. It was supposed to be brown, as in what these guys are full of... |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2005-05-14 13:32 |
#9 Oh, and another thing:Well, it's not as if Mexico hasn't taken steps to limit investment in their country by people from the US. Most Americans wouldn't be nearly so aggravated by immigration from Mexico if we weren't being made the scapegoat for two hundred-odd years of bad management by people like Vincente Fox, Santiago Creel, and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. | |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2005-05-14 13:30 |
| #8 Why, yes, Phil, they do quite quickly kick their fellow latinos out. As their own Constitution says - "Article 33. Foreigners are those who do not possess the qualifications set forth in Article 30. They are entitled to the guarantees granted by Chapter I, Title I, of the present Constitution; but the Federal Executive shall have the exclusive power to compel any foreigner whose remaining he may deem inexpedient to abandon the national territory immediately and without the necessity of previous legal action" |
| Posted by: Elmilet Thavirong9735 2005-05-14 13:23 |
| #7 Well, I'm sure they work very hard to limit the number of Hondurans crossing the border... |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2005-05-14 11:57 |
| #6 Let me guess, Mexico is going to be so furious about it that it's going to limit the number of illegals crossing the border so as to hobble to American economy. Yeah, that's the ticket. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-05-14 11:55 |
| #5 the more they squeal, the more fuel on the fire. Keep the spotlight on the roaches |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-05-14 11:54 |
| #4 The Mexican response, especially Fox's bullshit about lodging diplo complaints (WTF?), strikes me as exceptionally stupid and counterproductive. Since I would love to see this issue brought to the fore and US Law be applied and enforced, all I can say is "THANKS, FOX! You're a fucking idiot!" and I, for one, appreciate it! Lol! Wotta moron, heh. More! Louder! Appeal to your Tranzi pals! Lol! Love this shit. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-05-14 11:02 |
| #3 Then stay off our damn lawn before we shoot your ass for trespassing. Landmines work well too. |
| Posted by: Charles 2005-05-14 10:54 |
| #2 Good fences, etc... |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2005-05-14 10:47 |
| #1 Building walls doesn't help anyone build a good neighbourhood Then stay off our damn lawn before we shoot your ass for trespassing. |
| Posted by: mmurray821 2005-05-14 10:11 |