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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | April 2005 
Mexican Legislators Propose Stopping Migrants Before They Reach United States, Breaking With Tradition
 Wire services
| | U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested 14 people suspected of being illegal immigrants during a traffic stop last year. |
Mexico City - Mexican lawmakers have proposed a bill to stop Mexicans from traveling to dangerous border areas, a measure some say is needed to save lives but others say violates the right of free movement and bows to U.S. interests. For decades, Mexico has said its constitution prevents it from stopping its own citizens from migrating illegally to the United States. But the proposal challenges that tradition in a country that both relies on and regrets migration, that mourns migrant deaths but does little to prevent them.
Promoted as a humanitarian measure rather than a move to restrict migration, the bill has put Mexican legislators in the unusual position of receiving both praise from U.S. anti-immigration groups and criticism from pro-migrant activists.
"This bill will be very controversial. But I hope it can at least open a debate about Mexico's responsibility for the outflow of migrants," said Jorge Santibanez, president of Mexico's College of the Northern Border.
The measure has proved so sensitive that, even though it won approval in a Senate committee, the Interior Department asked its sponsor, Sen. Hector Osuna, to temporarily withdraw it Tuesday for some last-minute changes.
The department wants to specify that only police - not soldiers - can stop migrants; Osuna will resubmit the bill once those changes are made. "We can't just sit by with our arms crossed and wait for one more person to die," he said.
The bill would allow police or Mexico's migrant-protection agents to designate border areas as temporary "high-risk zones" and declare them off-limits to average citizens.
When high temperatures are forecast, for example, "patrols would go out, inform people of this, and take them to a safe place until it (the heat) is over," Osuna said. After that, the migrants are once again free to go where they wish.
"The analogy I use is what you see in the movies, when a person tries to commit suicide by jumping off a tall building," he said. "What does the government do? It tries to stop them."
Several hundred Mexican migrants die each year of heat stroke, drowning, dehydration or assaults at desert border crossings.
Osuna argues that both Article 11 of the constitution and civil defense laws have long allowed authorities to limit Mexicans' movements under certain circumstances. "There are a lot of places you aren't allowed to go," he said.
And Mexico already deports more than 200,000 undocumented migrants per year - mainly Central Americans - caught trying to reach the United States.
The bill passed the seven-member Senate Population and Development Commission unanimously in mid-April and was headed for debate on the floor of the Senate when migrant activists in the United States caught wind of it and began publicly criticizing it.
"It's useless to try to close the border from either side, the Mexican or U.S. side," said Claudia Smith, of the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation.
Those in favor of reducing migration to the United States disagree.
"It is heartening to see Mexican politicians turning their attention to the tragedy of Mexicans risking their lives to illegally cross into the United States," said Jack Martin, of the Washington-based Federation for American Immigration Reform.
In Mexico, some have considered the bill tantamount to treason.
Aldolfo Aguilar Zinser, a former senator and national security adviser, said President Vicente Fox's conservative National Action Party, to which Osuna belongs, "wants to look as accommodating as possible to (U.S. President George W.) Bush."
"Mexico cannot do the United States' dirty work on this side of the border," said Zinser, who calls the bill "a very bad idea."
Such criticism stings Osuna.
"This is a humanitarian issue," he said. "We are not doing anybody's work for them."
Osuna added that while some Mexican news media "report this as if we're trying to seal the border, or stop migration, that's not the intention, and it's not even possible."
Mexico walks a thin line on a lot of migration issues. It has asked the United States for more work visas for Mexicans, but has never offered to stop those who lack visas from crossing the border illegally.
It has published safety guides for migrants and defends migration as an economic and historical necessity, while officially claiming to discourage it.
And while Mexico has often pledged to crack down on migrant smugglers, the so-called "coyotes" still operate freely, openly recruiting clients at border bus stations.
Mexico has sometimes tried to demand U.S. citizenship for its migrants and criticized what it calls U.S. discrimination against them. But Mexican migrants living in the United States actually have broader rights - such as assuming public office or owning land - than do foreign residents in Mexico.
Some say Mexico has to start talking straighter, if it wants a migration agreement with its northern neighbor.
"(Mexico's) basic assumption that the United States ought to absorb all its excess labor is very dangerous for U.S.-Mexican relations," Zinser said. "It only ignites attitudes of fear and xenophobia." |
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