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 News from Around the Americas | October 2006 
Mexican Foreign Policy Adviser: US Must Change Immigration Tone
 Giovanna Dell'Orto - Associated Press
| | Many Mexican officials have said they believe the fence won't be erected, but Rozental said the impact of such talk on Mexican public opinion shouldn't be underestimated. |
The foreign policy adviser to Mexico's President-elect Felipe Calderon said Friday the new government will have a tough time selling Mexicans on continued trade and law enforcement agreements with the U.S. if U.S. politicians keep talking about a border fence and other "Mexican-bashing."
But Ambassador Andres Rozental, a 35-year veteran of Mexican foreign service, also said Mexico doesn't want to go the way of other Latin American nations whose governments have embraced popular anti-Washington stances.
"Public opinion in Mexico is on fire. You can't say, 'I want my Wal-Marts and my Home Depots and Coke to be sold there but I don't want you to come,'" Rozental told a group of mostly Hispanic news reporters at the Mexican consulate in Atlanta. "Mexico can't afford to have a bad relationship with the U.S. But there are nuances."
Congress has stalled immigration reform talks that include a guest worker program and a path to legalization for the millions of undocumented Mexican workers in the U.S. After President Bush signed a bill Wednesday authorizing more than $1 billion to build 700 miles of fence along the border, the Mexican government sent a diplomatic note criticizing the legislation.
Many Mexican officials have said they believe the fence won't be erected, but Rozental said the impact of such talk on Mexican public opinion shouldn't be underestimated.
Calderon shares outgoing President Vicente Fox's vision of a tight relationship with the U.S., but the hostile tone of the immigration debate in Washington might push the new government to seek closer ties with Latin America as well as the European Union and Asian countries, he said.
Rozental blamed politicians in Washington for focusing U.S. attention on the dangers of an unsecured border and linking border enforcement with the war on terror, a link he called false and lamentable.
"The intimate relationship between the migration issue and the electoral campaign makes it impossible to have a rational discussion. Extremists have owned the issue," he said, adding the tone will likely moderate after the Nov. 7 elections, especially if Democrats regain control of the House.
Labor shortages in some parts of the U.S. might also create pressure for a guest worker program, Rozental said, who called immigration from Mexico a simple issue of U.S. job demand matched by availability of Mexican workers. He said both nations should try to address it.
"The solution is not to build fences, it's to give them visas. It's not a difficult problem, it's a political one," Rozental said. "It's the responsibility of Mexico to give Mexicans more opportunities in Mexico."
Rozental served as Mexico's ambassador in various countries, including Great Britain, before becoming Eminent Ambassador in 1994. He is president of the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations and is rumored to be one of handful of candidates to head Calderon's foreign ministry, something he declined to comment on Friday.
Mexican Council on Foreign Relations: http://www.consejomexicano.org/ |
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