U.S. Ambassador in Mexico says limited "Amnesty" coming soon

www.el-universal.com.mx ^ | November 05, 2003 | JASON LANGE

[VU4G10]

The U.S. ambassador says the rising death toll among Mexicans trying to cross the border illegally gives the issue 'a sense of urgency.'

U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza on Tuesday said the U.S. Congress will likely approve limited migration reform in the next few months.

Garza said the rising death toll among migrants trying to cross the border illegally has given the issue "a sense of urgency," and ventured that migration reform could come in "a couple of months, [perhaps] three months."

"You'll see a lot of movement here pretty quickly," he told participants at an American Chamber of Commerce conference.

In recent months, U.S. lawmakers have proposed three separate bills to give more temporary work permits to undocumented migrants living in the United States. Garza said the Bush administration might take steps on its own toward migration reform apart from any action taken by Congress, though he did not elaborate what form such action could take.

"When you see the kinds of tragedies we've seen, you want to act out of compassion," Garza told a business forum in Mexico City, saying President Bush is looking for ways to "minimize the prospect of someone dying in the desert."

Garza also argued that legalizing undocumented workers was in line with the needs of the U.S. labor market.

He said the size of the Mexican illegal immigrant population an estimated 4-5 million "tells us that [U.S.] employers are seeking" out Mexican labor.

"Our migration policy must begin to respond to these realities," Garza said.

Garza's comments amounted to perhaps the most emphatic argument for migration reform by an official from the Bush administration since the Sept. 11 attacks shelved the issue two years ago.

Before the attacks, Mexico and the United States appeared close to an agreement on some sort of guest worker program. But the United States' subsequent focus on security, coupled by Mexico's refusal in the U.N. Security Council to back U.S. plans to invade Iraq, put migration talks on the back burner.

The past few months, however, have seen introduction of three new migration reform proposals in the U.S. Congress. Two of the bills propose substantial overhauls of migration laws, and could lead to the legalization of millions of undocumented immigrants. A third and less ambitious proposal seen as having the most support would legalize up to 500,000 agricultural workers.

The bills for wider reform face an uphill battle in Congress after being criticized by some legislators as de facto amnesty programs that would reward migrants for breaking migration laws.

The first two years of President Fox's term saw the nation's diplomats aggressively pushing for "the whole enchilada" in migration reform which was how former Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda described a wideranging guest worker program.

Since Castañeda's resignation early this year, the government has toned down its expectations, and in the words of current Foreign Minister Ernesto Luis Derbez, has sought "to cut the enchilada into bite-sized pieces."

Garza agreed that wide ranging reform will not come overnight.

"We're back on solid ground," Garza said of the congressional proposals. "But in the short term, you have to address these [issues] in terms of political realities."

[zip]

ping

[backhoe]

It appears my "click the Pic" was prophetic:

For "Thunder on the Border," click the picture:

[ZULU]

Keep those e-mail, letters and phone calls going to make Senior Garza a liar on this one.

[eeriegeno]

It would seem logical to me that sane people would want to know the scope of the problem before attempting a fix for the problem? Custer made that mistake and paid dearly for it..

It's time to reimplement the 'alien registration program' once again!