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 Editorials | Issues | October 2007 
Fox Assaults American Isolationism
 Dan Hirschhorn - The Evening Bulletin
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| | Vincente Fox, the former President of Mexico, is interviewed in New York Monday Oct. 8, 2007. Former Mexican President Vicente Fox said Monday that the United States is letting racism dictate its policies, especially when it comes to immigration. (AP/Richard Drew) |
Philadelphia - Former Mexican president Vicente Fox yesterday said the issue of immigration is misunderstood in the United States, and that this country is slipping down an isolationist slope.
Speaking to a crowd of about 500 at the Loews Hotel, Mr. Fox lamented what he called profound misconceptions among American media and politicians about immigration. He said the two countries should be partners in developing a mutually beneficial immigration system.
"I find this nation isolating itself from the rest of the world by building a wall," Mr. Fox said during a talk hosted by the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia. "I don't think that's the American dream."
"The real menace to this nation is isolation," he added to applause.
Mr. Fox's appearance here came only a few months after a massive immigration reform bill died in Congress, and with Americans still locked in fierce debate over how to secure the southern border and deal with millions of illegal immigrants already in the country.
The former president, in the heart of a promotional tour for his new book, A Revolution of Hope, spoke slowly with words of Spanish sprinkled here and there. While highlighting Mexico's economic achievements, its role in America's economy and the fiscal power of NAFTA, deep frustration with the debate over immigration here seemed to underscore his every word.
Insisting that consumer imports of American goods create jobs in the United States and taking a few jabs at America's own budget deficit, he said media pundits and politicians have been "very violent" in their attitude toward immigration.
"Some dare to say that the Mexican government is pushing" people to immigration, said Mr. Fox, who led Mexico from 2000-2006. "This is all lies."
"The United States is losing its jobs not to immigrants, but to China, to Europe and to Japan," he added.
Only days earlier, Mr. Fox had delivered a far more scathing critique of American immigration policy.
"The xenophobics, the racists, those who feel they are a superior race ... they are deciding the future of this nation," he told The Associated Press in an interview published Monday.
Asked yesterday to clarify exactly who he was talking about, Mr. Fox, in a brief interview after he left the podium, said only that he was referring to "those who are led by fear."
In addressing a full house yesterday, Mr. Fox also called upon Congress to take action on immigration. He said immigrants working in America should be protected and both countries should plan together for temporary workers needed. Many families who immigrate here, he said, come only for a chance to work, not to stay and gain citizenship.
"That's not the aspiration of these families," Mr. Fox said. |
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