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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | May 2005 
Letter To Protest US Wall
 Traci Carl - Associated Press
| | A U.S. proposal last week said it would extend the construction of border fences. |
Mexico is planning to send a diplomatic letter to the United States protesting the extension of a wall along the US-California border, officials said Friday.
Rubén Aguilar, a spokesman for President Vicente Fox, said early Friday the letter would be sent in the next few hours. But a spokesman for the Foreign Relations Secretariat said in the evening that the missive wouldn't be ready until Monday. He could provide no further details or reasons for the delay.
Aguilar said Fox would also continue to pressure the U.S. government to approve a migration accord that would allow more migrants to work legally north of the border.
U.S. President George W. Bush proposed a temporary work program last year, but it has stalled amid opposition in the U.S. Congress.
Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said Thursday that Fox had instructed him to send the diplomatic letter with the message that the wall's construction was "unacceptable and not a solution." The upcoming letter will be Mexico's first formal protest of new U.S. immigration regulations that require states to verify that people who apply for a driver's license are in the country legally.
The rules also make it harder for migrants to gain amnesty, and easier to override environmental laws to build a barrier along the Mexican border in California.
The new provisions were signed by U.S. President George W. Bush on Wednesday, and threaten to unravel recently patched relations between the United States and Mexico.
"We hope it doesn't make things worse than they already are, which is the obvious anger that building walls is not the way to resolve things along the border," Derbez said.
Fox and Bush were close friends after their elections in 2000, but relations between the two deteriorated after Fox opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq and Bush failed to pursue a migration accord amid terrorism fears.
Derbez said the Mexican government would continue to support the use of the country's consular identification cards, issued by the Mexican government to migrants living abroad.
Many migrants use the cards for official business, like opening bank accounts, boarding planes and getting a driver's license.
Some in the United States have argued the cards help people move illegally in the country, and they have lobbied U.S. cities and businesses to not accept them. |
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