Posted on 12/18/2001 11:06:05 PM PST by sarcasm
TIJUANA, Baja California - President Vicente Fox on Tuesday declared his six-year term in office "The Sexenio of the Migrant" in celebration of International Migrant Day, although some federal lawmakers and rights groups called into question his sincerity.
During a welcome home tour for some of the 2.5 million Mexicans returning for the holidays, Fox credited migrants for ushering in an era of "transcendental change" and praised them for their hard work, especially the nine billion dollars in remittances they sent home this year.
The record-breaking sum serves as the lifeblood for thousands of Mexican homes and represents the nation's third largest source of foreign income after oil and manufacturing.
"Immigration isn't a problem, it's an opportunity we're obliged to take advantage of," Fox told a conference on migrant health in this gritty border city just across from San Diego.
Fox, the first president to openly refer to migrants as "heroes," said the goal of his administration would be to create better economic and social conditions so fewer Mexicans feel obliged to leave their families in search of better fortunes north of the border.
He listed several migrant advocacy programs created during his first year in office investment programs in communities with high migration rates, free vaccinations and AIDS tests for migrants.
But just as Fox is touting his record on migrants, several lawmakers in attendance Tuesday warned proposed cuts to the Foreign Relations Secretariat's 2002 budget could derail any hopes for progress. Migrant advocacy groups say the cuts threaten to eliminate funds used by Mexican consulates in the United States to provide legal and health assistance to U.S. migrant communities.
"We're worried these cuts will affect migrant communities in the United States," said Mario Riestra, national director of State Offices for the Attention of Migrants, who sent a letter urging legislators not to approve the cuts when they vote on the issue later this month.
Eddie Varon, an Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) member of the nation's lower house, called the proposed cuts "intolerable and unworkable," and accused Fox of breaking his campaign promise to protect migrants.
While the Finance Secretariat recommends all federal budget cuts, Fox can over-rule the decision.
"Mexico cannot afford to be without a foreign policy that takes care of its own citizens," said Varon, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee.
Over eight million Mexicans live in the United States, slightly less than half of whom are there illegally.
Fox praised the "shared responsibility" for immigration assumed by both nations and said high-level talks between both sides resumed last month.
"I'm sure we'll reach an agreement soon," said Fox, who began the morning greeting Mexicans crossing the border in Nuevo Laredo as part of the annual Paisano Program.
We can see if Dubya comments about this on Saturday, if we can find someone to translate Bush's speech from Spanish to English.
Gotta hand it to the bastard...he told the truth in HALF of this sentence...
Now, however, my exhag's sisters and their broods are nothing but a drain on society, nursing on the teats of the DemonRats' sow. They love the fact that they are "Mexican", while their grandfaher was proud to be "American".
(Rambling here...sorry) I guess my point would be that I have nothing against a person who wants to work hard and not squander their cash on frivolities, but I absolutely abhor the manner in which the libs have turned illegal immigration into their pet cause. They (libs) couldn't get much more blatant about buying votes.
One more thing...don't know when the law was enacted about a child born on US soil is an American citizen, but that's analogous to me and my (fictional) wife breaking into a bank, giving birth (my fictional wife, that is) and claiming the baby has a right to a job at the bank. If illegal aliens have a baby, then the child is the child of illegal aliens (duh). Being a criminal and committing a criminal act produces a citizen, entitled to welfare, medicare, and who knows what else. Enough to make you ill.
Vicente Fox needs those folks swimming the Rio Grande to keep his tenuous economy afloat.
Bottom line. End of story!!
This is the point that the pro-illegals just don't get. Yeah, we all "came from somewhere else," but we came to be Americans. And there was no public trough for recent immigrants. It's a whole different ball game now, but don't think too loud about it or someone will call you a racist.
Bleeding the Gringos is beeeeg business.
Unfortunately it's in the Fourteenth Amendment:
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.
Mexico is actually a very wealthy country, it isn't like Japan with few natural resources, it has oil, land, and perfect weather. Mexicans like preserving their two-class system and that's why they want to dump their excess lower classes on the US, if they couldn't do that there'd be social unrest and some changes would have to be made and the 10% living high on the hog would be forced to give some of it up. They prefer the hard-working middle class Americans do that.
It's in the US Constitution, 14th Amendment. If you are *born* on US soil, you are a citizen, even if your parents were/are not. This was specifically added to the Constitution immediately after the Civil War, so that defeated Southern states (and others, presumably) who might wish to deny citizenship to freed blacks could not do so.
Obviously we're way past those days. Amending the US Constitution so that only those born of citizen parents (or at least a citizen mother; father if paternity could be proven) could be considered citizens would cut out a LOT of the pressure for illegal immigrants to come here. If they knew that they couldn't have their babies here and thus have citizen children, they might be less eager to illegally enter the US.
Implement asset forfeiture laws. It is illegal for them to be here. It is illegal to hire them. It is illegal to transport them. It is illegal to harbor them.
Seize all the assets and property of the illegal aliens, the businesses that hire them, the vehicles that transport them, and the homes of those who harbor them. Sell the property at government auction, split the proceeds among the federal, state, and local government. Then deport the criminal aliens.
If the bureaucrats realize that, they can make MILLIONS/BILLIONS of dollars, by enforcing the laws. Illegal immigration will end. If these “asset forfeiture” laws are good enough for Americans, they are good enough for criminal aliens.
Those delusional few who have stated that “these poor migrants just want to work”, need to go to any welfare office or county hospital for a reality check.
These “migrants”, criminals, are stealing from our children, parents, and from U.S.
"This is the point that the pro-illegals just don't get. Yeah, we all "came from somewhere else," but we came to be Americans. And there was no public trough for recent immigrants. It's a whole different ball game now, but don't think too loud about it or someone will call you a racist."
Yup, the thing of it is, though, is feeding at the welfare trough is a learned skill. Don't know statistics, but I'd be willing to bet hard cash that Asians "use" welfare at a far lower rate than Latinos and blacks and whites. I'm sure there are cultural reasons for that...I know they help each other by pooling and loaning money. However, my ex's sister knew more about welfare benefits than the 'case worker' she had to talk to.
I've known black folk who knew the same stuff. I remember when there was talk of limiting welfare benefits to two years...I heard my sis-in-law say that the Republicans are "trying to kill us." Umm. Yeah. Sure
RAMBLE on; you have very eloquently laid bare the simple truth of the whole situation.
I hope others will open their eyes and see.
excelent idea , but where do you start ?
With my pockets lined with good old U.S. cash
Si, no matter how I roam
There is nada place like home
Till I swim al norte por another stash.
Leni
Our borders exist for our benefit, not those on the other side.
You are 110% correct!
There are plenty of laws already on the books that - if enforced - would make businesses VERY unwilling to hire an illegal. But Big Business has the Demopublicans and Republicrats in its back pocket, so nothing is being done. Business sez, "Oh, if we are prosecuted for accidentally hiring an illegal we will just have to discriminate against everyone who looks/sounds/smells the least bit foreign and that wouldn't be right..."
IMHO the whole illegal immigrant thing could be turned around with an Elliott Ness type in charge of the INS and not afraid to offend the US Chamber of Commerce.
Look at all the desert land outside Las Vegas. The can build 40 or 60 story housing units, clear across the desert to Arizona and Utah. We have plenty of energy for millions more folks. Oh and if the schools are to freaking crowded, the kids can just stand outside and look through the windows. If it gets to bad, we will just jack up your taxes and build more schools, apartments and low income cities.
Just the kind of "partners in a special relationship"
we need. /sarcasm>
Fox can't stop. He's a junkie, hooked on US dollars sent home by his expats.
Very quickly learned.
Weren't the troops in the old days rewarded with the opportunity to plunder and rape and kill after taking a city after the siege?
I am wondering what word the defenders used?
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (Reuters) -- Mexican President Vicente Fox said Wednesday he expects to reach a deal with the United States in the first half of 2002 to bring legal status to some 3.5 million undocumented Mexicans living in the U.S.
Fox said he was optimistic for a final deal to recognize and improve the treatment of illegal Mexicans because of the support of U.S. President Bush, as well as the positive stance of leading Democratic lawmakers.
"This panorama leads us to think that we may be able to have the situation resolved in the first half of next year," Fox told a local radio station. "This would be truly historic, a great step forward on the road to greater integration with the United States and Canada."
Mexico and the United States have strong economic ties through the North American Free Trade Agreement, which also includes Canada, but the two neighbors have often squared off over the massive flow of migrants heading northward from Mexico.
Fox and Bush have moved to smooth over the migration issue in several face-to-face meetings over the past year. Bush took office in January, a month after Fox who stripped the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) of its 71-year hold on the presidency.
But Fox's push for improved status and treatment of Mexicans was shoved far down on the U.S. agenda in the wake of the September 11 attacks in the United States and the ensuing war in Afghanistan.
Talks were renewed in November with the visit of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt -- both Democrats -- to Fox's ranch in central Mexico.
Fox did not give details on what such a migration pact would include, but previous talks have centered on a guest-worker program and legal status for long-time immigrants who have not run afoul of U.S. law.
Fox added that he also planned to redouble lobbying efforts to speed up border crossings, which now average 80 minutes because of a security crackdown after September 11. Prior to the attacks, crossings took an average of 40 minutes, Fox said.
"We have not yet returned to the standard we had before September 11, there are still long lines and this is reducing tourism and commerce and affecting economic development on both sides of the border," he said.
(big cesspool with no amenities), threw these criminals in the hole ...
you mean the judges-criminales that turn these people out over and over ... good idea .!
They don't have a RIGHT to invade
your absolutly correct ... and if you will note I and cincinnati_Steve are among the ones trying to get this message across
go back and follow the thread , I think you will see that you and are are on the same track ... close the boarders , yesterday could not be soon enough
Unless they talking about bringing all of them here to damn near work for free doing all of the things I'm not willing to do for myself...that'd be fine. They could start by mowing my yard and tending my garden for $5 a day.
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