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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | May 2006 
Mexico Dismissive of U.S. Border Plan
 Will Weissert - Associated Press
| | Workers repair a section of the metal border wall that separates Nogales, Mexico, right, with Nogales, Ariz., Wednesday, May 17, 2006, seen from Mexico. The U.S. Senate endorsed a chance at citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants Wednesday but also voted to build 370 miles of triple-layered fencing along the Mexican border in increasingly emotional debate over election-year immigration legislation. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull) |
Across the Border: A Personal Story of Peril
 Ed Gordon - NPR
May 17, 2006 · Juan slipped across the U.S.-Mexico border in the middle of the night nine years ago. Now he's a student in New York. As part of the personal history project Crossing the Boulevard, he explains the challenges he has faced as an illegal immigrant.
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Nuevo Laredo, Mexico - Mexicans dismiss U.S. plans to send National Guard troops to the border as a futile effort that will only fuel the booming drug- and migrant-smuggling industry.
And with heavily armed Mexican soldiers in this violent border city, some worry the U.S. troop buildup could spark confrontations in an area where it is often difficult to tell where Mexico ends and the United States begins.
Gilberto Areola, who lives about 20 feet from the border in the Mexican city of Nogales, near Arizona, said he will feel uneasy with soldiers patrolling the other side.
"It makes me a little scared," said Areola, 54, looking at the walled border as he stood in his doorway. "A stray bullet could affect us since we live so close to the line. I think this could cause more violence."
Tensions in both countries have been rising over increased violence spawned by drug battles, the human-smuggling industry and recent border scuffles.
Blanca Estela Aguilar, a 24-year-old party services saleswoman in Nuevo Laredo, said that with the introduction of National Guard troops she believes clashes between the two sides are likely.
"We are going to see a confrontation between troops over there and police here," she predicted. "It could be in the long or short term, but it will happen. And many people are likely to die."
Ken Roth, executive director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, told reporters in Mexico City that he was "deeply concerned about the idea of militarizing the border."
"Whenever you introduce troops — and the National Guard are troops — you risk abuse," he said. "The Bush administration has not been terribly good at giving signals to the military about the proper treatment of people in custody."
While Mexico has stepped up efforts against drug, weapons and people smugglers, it leaves migrants alone; its citizens have the right to walk up to the border, and once they cross they are out of Mexican territory.
In many areas, the border isn't clearly marked, especially in remote stretches of desert from New Mexico to California where many migrants cross.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has estimated that Mexican soldiers cross into the United States about 20 times a year, mostly by accident. Mexican authorities sometimes complain of U.S. officials crossing the line.
In January, Texas authorities hunting drug traffickers came across heavily armed men dressed in Mexican military garb and chased them back across the border. The Mexican government said the men were drug smugglers disguised as soldiers.
While troops are common in Nuevo Laredo, much of the Mexican side isn't patrolled, aside from the occasional military checkpoints set up to search for drugs and weapons.
Mexican President Vicente Fox has expressed concern about the U.S. plan, telling President Bush in a weekend phone call that he would like to see a more "comprehensive" reform that respects human rights and allows for the orderly, legal movement of people across the border.
Fox's government said this week it will file lawsuits in U.S. courts if National Guard troops detain migrants. But presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar said Wednesday that Mexico respects the U.S. decision to send the soldiers and that "it's not about militarizing" the border.
Roberto Madrazo, one of three main presidential candidates, disagreed.
"We aren't going to solve the migration problem with the army," he said during a campaign appearance Tuesday. "Militarizing the border seems like another bad idea by the U.S. government. It's just going to slow the delivery of a lot of goods."
Nuevo Laredo City Council member Jose Francisco Chavira said he's considering organizing a boycott of U.S. goods to protest the plan.
"I see it as an act of intimidation, an act that is part of a plan to build a giant wall along the border, like Bush wants," he said. |
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