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 Editorials | Issues | July 2007 
Mexico's Foreign Secretary Espinosa Blasts Failure of Immigration Bill
 Giovanna Dell'orto - Associated Press
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| | U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (C) and Mexico's Secretary of Foreign Relations Patricia Espinosa Cantellano at the State Department in Washington, July 6, 2007. (Reuters/Larry Downing) |
Mexico's foreign secretary said that the failure of an immigration reform bill last week "aggravates" the problem of illegal immigration in the United States and "cancels the possibility that millions of families may progress."
"These are hard times for immigrants in the United States," Patricia Espinosa said Friday night in Atlanta, where she had traveled to mark the 30th anniversary of the opening of Mexico's consulate general in the city. The celebration was attended by consular officials from Mexico and other countries, as well as by Georgia officials, including Secretary of State Karen Handel.
"Millions of human beings are forced to live in the shadows, in the margins of society," she said. "Families are divided, migrants are abused, and almost 400 lives are lost each year in the attempt to reach this country under inhuman and dangerous conditions."
Addressing the audience of more than 200, Espinosa said the Mexican government, particularly through its consulates, will continue to demand that Mexican workers and their families are treated with dignity "independently of their migratory condition."
The Atlanta consulate has a staff of about 30 to assist an estimated 700,000 Mexicans in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee. It will monitor the enforcement of new local immigration laws to make sure the rights of Mexicans are respected and will also fight to make consular IDs more broadly accepted by U.S. authorities, Espinosa said.
Espinosa, who became part of President Felipe Calderon's new government last fall, said that the contributions made by Mexican workers to the U.S. economy should be acknowledged in the heated debate over immigration reform. But she also said Calderon is working on creating better job opportunities back in Mexico to try to stem the northbound flow of workers.
Calderon, opinion makers and migrant advocates in Mexico have said that the collapse of U.S. immigration reform plans hurts Mexican workers, U.S. employers and anti-terrorism efforts.
The plan, supported by Bush, would have created a way to legalize as many as 12 million unlawful immigrants from around the world while fortifying the border. It failed in the Senate last week and it's unlikely to be revived until after the next presidential election. |
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