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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | January 2007 
Calderón Says New Congress Should Aid Immigration Issues
 Bloomberg
| | Mexico's President Felipe Calderon-Hinojosa gestures while speaking during an address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Friday Jan. 26, 2007. The annual meeting moved into its third day Friday with continued discussions surrounding global warming, the Middle East, and the Internet. (AP/Virginia Mayo) |
Mexican President Felipe Calderón said yesterday that his country has a better chance of resolving disputes with the United States over immigration now that Democrats control the U.S. Congress.
“With the new composition of the U.S. Congress there are greater opportunities and more potential for making progress on the immigration issue,” Calderón said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
At the Institute of the Americas in San Diego on Thursday night, former Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner said she would put the chances of getting an immigration bill passed during President Bush's term at “slightly more than 50-50.”
Calderón said it was essential to convince Americans that Mexico and the United States have “complementary” economies. “Mexico has manpower, and America has much capital,” he said.
Meissner, who served under President Clinton and is now a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute think tank in Washington, called immigration “a vital national asset.”
Last year, Bush sought a guest worker program and a path to citizenship for some of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States.
That measure stalled in Congress after House Republicans demanded a greater focus on security and border control. Bush settled for legislation authorizing construction of 700 miles of barriers along the nearly 2,000-mile border with Mexico. He signed the bill Oct. 26.
Calderón said Bush, in a telephone conversation this week, said he was pushing forward a compromise immigration reform package on Capitol Hill. Bush made his latest pitch for the plan in his State of the Union address Tuesday.
Democrats are demanding that Bush deliver support of congressional Republicans to ensure passage of a bipartisan overhaul of immigration law. Meissner said such a bill would probably need the backing of at least 15 Senate Republicans and 40 House Republicans to pass.
Meissner said, “There is no question that President Bush wants immigration reform as a legacy for himself.” She also said he “has never put any political muscle behind it.”
Meissner said immigration reform opponents should look at the magnitude of the benefits immigrants provide to the United States over the long term. “Over time, these people generate revenue,” she said.
But that was disputed at a forum held in San Diego yesterday that was sponsored by the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies. Mark Krikorian, the center's executive director, said illegal immigrants in general “don't pay a lot of taxes . . . and use a lot of services.” |
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