Flash Post: Mexico Objects to the Wall
Posted by StormWarning on 29 Sep 2006 at 10:32 pm | Tagged as: Current Affairs, Federal Policy, International Issues, National Security, Opinions
Of all the audacious "beans and stuff!" Vicente Fox’ Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez has said that the wall will damage U.S.-Mexican relations and trade. Derbez said if the full Congress approves the wall, Mexico will send a letter strongly condemning the measure. Asked by a reporter if that meant the government would try to "dissuade" Bush from signing the bill into law, he replied, "Without a doubt."
The same article says, "Congress has abandoned Mexico’s top priority: an immigration accord that would have allowed more Mexicans to work legally in the United States. Bush had proposed a temporary worker program that would have given out three-year work visas to those with jobs lined up in the U.S.
Instead, U.S. lawmakers have focused on increasing security along the border. The added security has angered Mexico, which sees the actions as a militarization of the two countries’ common frontier."
This one is even better…Mexican government warns U.S. border fence will harm relations Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department warned Thursday that a U.S. proposal to build hundreds of miles of border fencing, which is working its way through the Senate, will damage the United States’ relation with its southern neighbor.
The department said in a news release that it was “deeply worried” about the proposal, adding it will “increase tension in border communities.”
“These measures will harm the bilateral relationship. They are against the spirit of co-operation that is needed to guarantee security on the common border,” it said.
So instead of fixing their own damn country…instead of improving the standard of living, the economy, creating jobs, improving the educational system, and generally making Mexico a better place to live by improving the standard of living, the outgoing Fox government (and we could expect the new Calderon government to continue this position) is telling us that only comprehensive reform of our immigration laws is the only way to stop thousands of Mexicans from entering the United States illegally.
HOGWASH! Are we going to allow Mexico to dictate our National security policies? I hope not.
Current Affairs, Federal Policy, International Issues, National Security, Opinions
Does this surprise anyone?
This issue unifies Mexicans like no other. Of course, wall or no wall, potential migrants interviewed in papers down here all say another barrier won’t dissuade them from trying to cross the border. After all, in many pueblos, migration is a tradition and the money sent home keeps the economy from collapsing.
The sad part about the Mexican government - and society’s - posturing is that these migrants are denied opportunities at home. So they leave. Once they start running for the border, they become a cause. Perhaps more attention should be paid to them before they leave.
No, this doesn’t surprise anyone (certainly not me). In fact, what struck me first was that I had heard a report on one of the local radio stations down here that led with the line, “Mexico lobbies against Border Security.” I thought to myself, “how ludicrous!”
While I fully understand the humanitarian aspect of the plight of the people who come here illegally, there is still no denying that our porous border with Mexico makes us (the citizens of the United States) less safe. All of the posturing to the contrary by anyone in our government is, likewise, ludicrous.
Now, Señor Reportero…I totally agree with your assessment. The Mexican government clearly does not care about “these people.”
Either way, or anyway, the Mexican government is duplicitous, in my opinion, in making statements that the wall will hurt U.S.-Mexican relations and yet does nothing to improve the lives of the people who come to this country each and every day.
And something just occured to me…there is a “class component” to this whole thing! While I cannot be sure of this, I wonder about the demographics of the “migrants” (as Señor Reportero labels them)…I wonder how many of the migrants are Mexicans of European descent.