Focus on the immigration issue continues south of the border

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICERS
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Foreign News Report

The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis. You are free to disseminate this information, but we request that you credit NAFBPO as being the provider.

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Wednesday, 5/5/10

El Sol de Mexico (Mexico City) 5/4/10

Central American legislators take hands-on action re U.S. immigration

The “Presidents” of the Congresses of seven Central American countries plan to meet in Guatemala on May 13 & 14 to elaborate a proposal to be presented to the U.S. Senate. That document would seek to halt Arizona’s law against immigrants. Roberto Alejos, President of Guatemala’s Congress, added that “At the same time, we will set out (to the senators) the importance of approving an integral migratory reform.”

The presidents of the congress of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama will travel to Washington on May 15 to present their proposal. The President of Honduras’ Congress, Juan Orlando Hernandez, explained that the Central American legislators plan visits with OAS (Org. of American States) officials and with U.S. legislators in Washington to seek support against Arizona’s law.

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Mexican senators and the Arizona law

Mexican senators who are members of the North American Foreign Relations Commission are planning a trip to Washington and Phoenix, Arizona, to meet with various immigrant groups and civic organizations, and to carry out protests against a reactionary law which violates the immigrants’ human rights.

Mexican Congressman Silvano Arreoles, vice-coordinator of the PRD (a leftist pol. party) senators, said in an interview that “Now is the moment to act and raise our voice for our fellow countrymen and, in general, for the undocumented who are in the United States.”

http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldemexico/notas/n1619886.htm

http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldemexico/notas/n1620949.htm

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Prensa Libre (Guatemala City, Guatemala) 5/4/10

Reaction by Guatemalans in the U.S. to proposed immigration reform

“Migua” (the Guatemalan Immigrant Movement in the U.S.) has expressed its disappointment about the proposed immigration reform legislation presented last week by Senators Harry Reid, Charles Shumer and Bob Melendez. The president of that organization, Carlos Gomez, said that the Democratic leaders of the Senate have chosen to continue on the road to ignorance and prejudice against the communities of migrants, at the time of defining how they are going to deal with the challenge of reforming the broken and de-humanized current immigration law. According to the leader of Guatemalan residents in Chicago, the proposal reflects the punitive emphasis against aliens, which has been the case in the United States since the early 90’s.

Meanwhile, Julio Velasquez, vice-president of that organization and leader of Guatemalans in New Jersey, deemed that the proposal must include, at the least, the rapid processing of family petitions and an agile and economically accessible program to process permanent residency, among other measures.

The preceding article had the following commentary from a reader:

Who cares about this organization’s opinion. Those who are legal don’t have to worry, and those who are illegal, well, they have to be very careful and not disobey the laws of the country where they are. If they go around drunk and driving, well, everybody is punished for that. If they go around the street fighting, well… that is also punished, if they beat the wife or the husband that is also punished, not only the illegals but everyone. If the law is broken you know ahead of time that there’s a punishment if you get caught.

At the moment when any person from some country decides to go into another country without due authorization, the law of that country is being broken, and he will be considered illegal. Does someone believe that there could exist (as an example only) an organization to watch over the rights of ILLEGAL Salvadorans in Guatemala, do you believe that the government would at least give them the right to protest in public? I, as a Guatemalan, would tell them NO. They are here as ILLEGALS. In any event, here in Guatemala not even our own citizens are allowed to express freely what they think. Be it said, if you are illegally here in Guatemala, or in the States, or in Mexico, you must respect the laws and behave well, and, of course, with the thought that someday you must return to the homeland (whichever it may be.)

http://www.prensalibre.com/noticias/Migua-decepcion-conceptual-reforma-migratoria_0_255574552.html

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Cambio de Michoacan (Morelia, Michoacan) 5/4/10

Michoacan state congress acts against Arizona

The Michoacan congress promotes that the legislative, executive and judicial powers of the country, including all entities, the Distrito Federal and the federal chambers (read: national congress) issue a joint call to the international community so that it may condemn the approval of Law SB1070 forcefully. Due to the fact that a bit more than 460 thousand undocumented are in Arizona, the deputies propose the urgency of a national power bloc to reject the law. For this reason the Michoacan congress document – which will be subject to approval next Thursday – will be sent to all the country’s legislatures, as well as to the government of the Republic, the National Conference of Governors and the Judicial Power of the Federation.

The LXXI Legislature will also exhort the federal government so that, by means of the Department of Foreign Relations, it might begin appropriate action and demand the United Nations, specifically the International Court of Justice, to respect of the human rights of the migrants who reside in Arizona, and that it follow on a timely basis the judicial actions begun and aimed at impeding said law from going into effect.

http://www.cambiodemichoacan.com.mx/vernota.php?id=124199

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El Informador (Guadalajara, Jalisco) 5/4/10

Mexican journalists advised to protect themselves

“Article 19,” a non-governmental organization, has presented a guide titled “Prevent, to be able later to report.” It is addressed to journalists in “risk zones” of Mexico, and includes recommendations that journalists ought to consider the need for helmets and bullet-proof vests.

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Frontera (Tijuana, Baja Calif.) 5/4/10

“Crystal” seizure

Mex. military and Tijuana police seized 276 packages of “crystal,” enough for 942,000 doses, and valued at $7,850,000 U.S. dollars. No arrests were made at the site, in the La Presa area of Tijuana. [A Mexico City paper, “El Universal,” also reported seven homicides in Tijuana in the last 72 hrs, but no such report was found in the Tijuana paper]

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La Cronica de Hoy (Mexico City) 5/4/10

Short takes:

• Seventeen kidnap victims were rescued from two “security houses” in Matamoros, Tamaulipas [right across from Brownsville, TX]; they were being held while their relatives residing in the U.S. were being extorted by phone.
• More than 3 million dollars were found at Mexico City’s Airport. The cash was hidden in a shipment of massage beds and TV’s destined to Caracas, Venezuela.
• Twelve persons were executed in Guerrero.

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El Diario (Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua) 5/4/10

“Rejected once again” 
A full op/col by Alicia Vasquez, M.D.,
regarding Mexico’s now historic migrant problem: laying the blame where it belongs.

 Enactment of law SB1070 in the State of Arizona has caused a great polemic, as much inside the United States as outside the country. It is labeled as a law that promotes discrimination, mainly about Mexicans, who are in that state without documents; it defines presence without documents as a crime, and allows police to detain the suspects. Americans themselves have expressed their disapproval, the fellow countrymen who reside in that state fear going out on the street for fear of being detained; in Mexico there is major indignation, there’s talk of a commercial boycott of the state, and bulletins are issued to keep Mexicans from visiting the state.

The number of “wets,” “illegals,” or however they may be called, began to cross the border toward the United States at the end of the sixties, after the end of the Bracero program, which started from 1942 until 1964. After the war, (the time) when the need for manpower was imperative and Mexicans became an important labor force for the U.S., they helped raise and improve the economy of the neighbor country, to be later deported toward the end of 1964; from there on, thousands of fellow countrymen cross the border illegally in search of opportunities, a phenomenon which decreased when the maquiladora industry [read: assembly plants] arrived in the country’s border, and they were able to find a reliable job and benefits.

But when the phenomenon of the maquiladoras deteriorated, entire towns faced misery. Without means of income for their families, migration increased to such an extent that individual monetary remittances sent by illegal employees, in dollars, are a significant income for the national economy.

That’s how we tolerate that at the same time, and on a par with drug traffic, the “coyotes” or “polleros” [read: people smugglers] proliferated, generating two of the most profitable businesses for crime, at the expense of the need of those who have to leave their country in search of what they cannot find within it, despite being victims of mistreatment, humiliations and putting life at risk.

Suddenly, the United States found itself with 12 million illegal immigrants, and in Arizona around five hundred thousand, who according to the new law will be treated as criminals.

It’s painful to repeatedly ascertain the suffering of our fellow countrymen who daily cross after the “American dream.” The insults and recriminations have not been long in coming from we Mexicans, and especially border area residents, against the Americans; without stopping to think that the main responsible party for that displacement of illegals to the United States is our own Mexican government, due to the lack of opportunities and misery in which they live, which pushes them above all to cross the border.

What has Mexico done to hold on to its fellow residents and to avoid having them cross illegally into the United States? If the maquiladora phenomenon lessened migration somewhat, why not use that example and create employment? Why not improve agricultural productivity? Why not offer equality of opportunity? There have been Mexicans mistreated in their own country, that’s why they emigrate, and once there, they don’t want to return, because they know the conditions in the country are not going to be different than when they left and they will return to misery.

We must accept that each country is sovereign and independent, and that the United States has the power to enact laws which may be favorable to them. Illegal immigrants, workers or not, are outside the law of that country, they crossed under the shadows and have stayed within them. We mustn’t be demanding better treatment for our fellow countrymen from the Americans, it’s here at home where we must give them a proper life so that they may not find themselves in need of leaving their land, their customs and roots.

http://www.diario.com.mx/nota.php?notaid=c79a17057c3b3b2778e689dc3c11fc12

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