Stiofán
01-09-2004, 04:35 PM
The Los Angeles Times (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-migrant9jan09,1,2839077.story?coll=la-headlines-world) has a story from the perspective of the Mexicans who are most likely to benefit from Bush's quasi amnesty program. There is a large divide between them and many of us here in the U.S. in our attitudes. In reading this article, it's quite clear they don't see anything wrong in breaking our immigration, tax and civil laws by entering America and working under the table. It's hard to fault them for wanting the higher wages we can offer, when the alternative is poverty in their own country. Still, it kind of makes you or a relative a sapp if you/they go to the trouble and expense and years of waiting to get in the legal way.
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"Illegal migration is going to continue," Alberto Rojas, 39, said at Mexico City's northern bus terminal Thursday before heading to Tijuana. From there, he will try to return illegally to his factory job in Phoenix.
Mexico, with as many as 10 million workers sending home $14 billion a year from the United States, has a lot to gain from an overhaul of U.S. immigration laws. Since the two rancher-statesmen took office three years ago, Fox has been lobbying Bush to expand guest-worker programs and legalize the estimated 3.5 million to 4 million undocumented Mexican migrants in the United States.
Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez said that Bush's outline might not satisfy Mexico but called it a welcome start. He said Fox's government, in negotiations with the Bush administration, would "continue working for, searching for, a complete program, a whole one, which covers all those who seek temporary work and those already in the United States."
"We're going for more. We're going for more," Fox told reporters Thursday.
In Juchitepec, a textile and farming town of 26,000 people, residents had plenty of suggestions for how Fox should lobby Bush when they meet Monday at an economic summit in Monterrey, Mexico.
"He should tell Bush to give the maximum number of work permits for our men," said Gema Espinoza, whose husband waters a golf course in Maryland. "Our textile plants hire mainly women, but there's not enough work for men on our farms."
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Among them was Alberto Rosas, 25, a policeman with an automatic rifle standing guard outside City Hall. Rosas said he planted pine trees in Louisiana, Georgia, Virginia and Pennsylvania for six months last year as one of 160,000 Mexicans with temporary U.S. work visas. He welcomed the program's proposed expansion.
As he spoke, Antonio Vergara, the plaza's news vendor, walked up to criticize the plan. "We want an unconditional amnesty for all our illegal workers up there so they can enjoy full human rights," he said.
Like many Mexicans, he dismissed Bush's plan as a longshot gesture aimed at wooing Latino voters to boost his reelection chances.
Vergara, who said he worked illegally for six years in half a dozen American states, led a visiting reporter and photographer on a tour, pointing out in nearly every block the homes of people who had at least one son or daughter living illegally in the United States.
At one home, Antonio Velazquez and his wife, Guillermina, answered the door. Seven of their nine children are working illegally in Florida, they said, and the last time they saw any of them was four years ago. They have never seen eight of their grandchildren, who were all born in the United States.
"My children are like birds. They left the nest and never came back," said Velazquez, a 74-year-old farmer. If his children benefit from the Bush plan, he added, they could finally come home to visit, because they would no longer face steep smuggler's fees for the return trip.
Mayor Ramiro Rendon, who has several relatives in Arizona, agreed that Bush's plan could reunite many families divided by the border. But he criticized it for limiting legalized migrants to three-year work visas.
Rendon said migrants need longer-term security, and he offered something in return: Mexican mayors could play a role in selecting future migrants for work visas, vouching for those from their towns who are solid citizens and good workers. Mexicans currently holding U.S. work visas are vetted only by their employers and the U.S. Embassy in Mexico.
"We are pleased by this offer from the president of the United States, and we are at his service," the mayor said. "If we could work directly with American counties and states to make this program work, it would be magnificent."
<br>
"Illegal migration is going to continue," Alberto Rojas, 39, said at Mexico City's northern bus terminal Thursday before heading to Tijuana. From there, he will try to return illegally to his factory job in Phoenix.
Mexico, with as many as 10 million workers sending home $14 billion a year from the United States, has a lot to gain from an overhaul of U.S. immigration laws. Since the two rancher-statesmen took office three years ago, Fox has been lobbying Bush to expand guest-worker programs and legalize the estimated 3.5 million to 4 million undocumented Mexican migrants in the United States.
Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez said that Bush's outline might not satisfy Mexico but called it a welcome start. He said Fox's government, in negotiations with the Bush administration, would "continue working for, searching for, a complete program, a whole one, which covers all those who seek temporary work and those already in the United States."
"We're going for more. We're going for more," Fox told reporters Thursday.
In Juchitepec, a textile and farming town of 26,000 people, residents had plenty of suggestions for how Fox should lobby Bush when they meet Monday at an economic summit in Monterrey, Mexico.
"He should tell Bush to give the maximum number of work permits for our men," said Gema Espinoza, whose husband waters a golf course in Maryland. "Our textile plants hire mainly women, but there's not enough work for men on our farms."
<br>
Among them was Alberto Rosas, 25, a policeman with an automatic rifle standing guard outside City Hall. Rosas said he planted pine trees in Louisiana, Georgia, Virginia and Pennsylvania for six months last year as one of 160,000 Mexicans with temporary U.S. work visas. He welcomed the program's proposed expansion.
As he spoke, Antonio Vergara, the plaza's news vendor, walked up to criticize the plan. "We want an unconditional amnesty for all our illegal workers up there so they can enjoy full human rights," he said.
Like many Mexicans, he dismissed Bush's plan as a longshot gesture aimed at wooing Latino voters to boost his reelection chances.
Vergara, who said he worked illegally for six years in half a dozen American states, led a visiting reporter and photographer on a tour, pointing out in nearly every block the homes of people who had at least one son or daughter living illegally in the United States.
At one home, Antonio Velazquez and his wife, Guillermina, answered the door. Seven of their nine children are working illegally in Florida, they said, and the last time they saw any of them was four years ago. They have never seen eight of their grandchildren, who were all born in the United States.
"My children are like birds. They left the nest and never came back," said Velazquez, a 74-year-old farmer. If his children benefit from the Bush plan, he added, they could finally come home to visit, because they would no longer face steep smuggler's fees for the return trip.
Mayor Ramiro Rendon, who has several relatives in Arizona, agreed that Bush's plan could reunite many families divided by the border. But he criticized it for limiting legalized migrants to three-year work visas.
Rendon said migrants need longer-term security, and he offered something in return: Mexican mayors could play a role in selecting future migrants for work visas, vouching for those from their towns who are solid citizens and good workers. Mexicans currently holding U.S. work visas are vetted only by their employers and the U.S. Embassy in Mexico.
"We are pleased by this offer from the president of the United States, and we are at his service," the mayor said. "If we could work directly with American counties and states to make this program work, it would be magnificent."