Mexico Demands U.S. Allow More Immigration

Immigration and our Borders Forum

NewsMax.com Wires
Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2006

MEXICO CITY -- Diplomats from Mexico and Central America on Monday demanded guest worker programs and the legalization of undocumented migrants in the United States, while criticizing a U.S. proposal for tougher border enforcement.

Meeting in Mexico's capital, the regional officials pledged to do more to fight migrant trafficking, but indirectly condemned a U.S. bill that would make illegal entry a felony and extend border walls.

"Migrants, regardless of their migratory status, should not be treated like criminals," they said.

The countries represented at the meeting - including Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Belize and Panama - created a working group to design a regional policy to avoid migrant abuse and to follow the course of the legislation.

"There has to be an integrated reform that includes a temporary worker program, but also the regularization of those people who are already living in receptor countries," Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said.

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Derbez has called the measure - which passed the U.S. House of Representatives last month but still must go before the Senate - "stupid and underhanded," but was somewhat more restrained on Monday, saying "it's not the Mexican government's position to tell the U.S. Senate what to do."

The U.S. proposal has caused widespread resentment in Mexico, where some have accused President Vicente Fox's administration of not being assertive enough in opposing it. Fox has called the bill shameful.

Mexicans working in the United States are a huge source of revenue for Mexico, sending home more than $16 billion in remittances in 2004, Mexico's second largest source of foreign currency after oil exports according to the country's central bank.

Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, defended the administration's record on Monday, telling reporters that migration has declined in recent years, though official figures show it remains at historically high levels.

Aguilar also said migrants "don't emigrate because they lack work, but rather for a series of other reasons, cultural reasons or better living conditions."

What amazes me is that he does not grasp the concept that illegals are breaking the law by coming into the country illegally. Look at the industries that have been ruined because these workers take next to nothing for their services. I live in San Diego County, and if you go to a Home Depot here, there are at least a dozen illegals lined up looking for work. It hurts our construction industry.


If we truly want to get a migrant worker program they need to include the following

make them have to earn the minimum wage
no free healthcare here
no enrolling their kids in our schools- price of education is too expensive.

What if they just paid taxes? That would be huge. The problem is that their wages are probably under the table anyway.

I say give them the work visa and let them take the jobs nobody wants. Make the owners pay them minimum wage and make them pay state and federal taxes. There doesn't need to be any other benefits. At least they are registered and we know much more about them than before.

Just think of the new jobs this will create with new passports and visa requirements, transportation. We would get most of it back anyway.

Only one more thing, you may need to bone up on your Spanish.

Everything here is done in Spanish. You can't call a business, a large one that is, without a menu in Spanish.

The thing that really costs us is that they get free medical care. Go to an e.r. in San Diego, and you will find a whole bunch of immigrants using it as a doctors office. It really runs up the cost of healthcare for everyone else.

U.S.A1, I agree that they should just issue visas, keep track, don't allow them citizenship, and make them earn minimum wage at least. We can't keep everyone out, but we can better manage those who are here.