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 Editorials | December 2007 
Calderon Vows to Aid Deported Countrymen
 San Antonio Express-News
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| | President Felipe Calderón |
With immigration reform such a hot-button issue in the United States, some Mexican officials have acted as if the problem originates on the northern side of the border.
President Felipe Calderón, unlike his predecessors, has refused to adopt this wrongheaded stance.
Recognizing that Mexico has an illegal immigration problem of its own, with a flood of workers streaming in from Central America, he has called for a guest worker program and increased security on the southern border — measures that are similar to the proposals of immigration reform advocates in the United States.
Calderón also realizes that his country, like Central America, supplies undocumented workers to another country, and he is trying to do something about it.
The president recently announced a pilot program guaranteeing food, shelter, temporary employment and emergency medical care to Mexicans deported from the United States, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Federal, state and municipal agencies will work with nonprofit groups to guarantee "humanitarian and dignified treatment to a half-million Mexicans deported each year," Calderón said in a speech near Tijuana.
The president did not announce the details of the plan, but the more aid the workers receive on the southern side of the border, the less compelled they will feel to work on the northern side.
As modest as the project may appear, it represents another positive step by a president who seems more responsible and enlightened than his predecessors. |
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