- In recent days, Mexican President Vicente Fox and his
Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Luis Ernesto Derbez, have sent barbed messages
to the U.S.A. The main message - Mexico plans to get tough with the U.S.A.
regarding the treatment of migrant workers in this country and the services
they should receive.
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- During a speech in Leon, Guanajuato, Fox said that he
would absolutely defend the matrícula consular, the Mexican identity
card that is issued to qualifying nationals residing abroad, regardless
of their immigration status. The president told the audience, that included
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson: "The matrícula
consular (cards) are again being questioned, however we will defend them
with tooth and nail because our fellow countrymen are neither criminals
nor terrorists. They are people with dignity and workers who contribute
a great deal to the North American economy." ["contributions"
include a destroyed educational system, bankrupted hospitals, deadly diseases,
innocent U.S. citizen men, women & children robbed, raped, maimed,
murdered]
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- Matrícula consular cards, that in essence document
the undocumented, are now accepted in many communities nationwide to open
bank accounts, for leases or rentals and to qualify for needs such as utilities
and public services. Currently however a bill is pending in the U.S. House
of Representatives, that if passed would make the matrícula consular
an unacceptable form of identification with federal agencies. In September
a House subcommittee passed a resolution that would prohibit banks from
accepting the cards as identification.
-
- Meeting with reporters in Mexico City, Foreign Minister
Derbez said that after the November elections Fox would visit California
- and Derbez pointed a finger directly at Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Derbez said that the Mexican president would have a "very tough talk"
with the governor. According to Derbez two subjects would top the agenda.
First, the president will explain that the matrícula consular meets
all security requirements, [blatant lie - there is NO security requirements
- it is a "free pass" for criminals, smugglers & terrorists!]
plus he will tell the governor that Mexican migrants must not be viewed
as criminals.
-
- Noting that Schwarzenegger recently vetoed the bill to
allow the issuance of driver's licenses to immigrants, Derbez secondly
said that the matrícula consular "should be sufficient in order
to obtain a driver's license." He said that the Mexican document is
issued only after the applicant has met all requisites and submitted to
a criminal background check. In the meantime, some leaders of migrant rights
organizations in California are calling for a series of boycotts [good!
maybe some citizens can get their jobs back!]as part of their demand that
Schwarzenegger issue driver's licenses to migrants who cannot prove legal
residency in the state. As a beginning, some 1,000 people marched in Los
Angeles on October 16, [Per Spanish station KPLS, this march was a monumental
FLOP as they were expecting 50,000 to 100,000 illegals to join this "grande
marcha"] where California State Senator Gil Cedillo, the author of
the driver's license bill vetoed by Schwarzenegger, declared: "We
are not terrorists. The governor is an immigrant like we are immigrants,
and because of that we insist that the governor honor his word and give
us the same license he has."
-
- Hearing of the boycott plans in California, Derbez pushed
the envelope right to the edge of intervention in the sovereign affairs
of California. "I believe that the Mexican community must send the
message that it is sending, which is we represent (something) positive
for the state and the country, therefore we ask we be treated like we should
be treated and if migrants decide to conduct a peaceful boycott, so that
their positive side is taken into account, it is proper," the diplomat
told the Mexico City daily Reforma.
-
- During all of this the Mexican Senate is reaching across
the northern border in ways it would quickly condemn if done the other
way around. In late September senators unanimously approved sending a letter
to Schwarzenegger to express concern over his veto of the driver's license
bill. (It is currently taking similar actions with Arizona and Proposition
200.) Actually the Mexican intervention in California was done at the request
of state legislators, members of the California Latino Legislative Caucus
[Mex agents posing as U.S. reps] who had met with the senators during a
visit to Mexico City, this according to Assemblyman Marco Antonio Firebaugh
who chairs the caucus. Early this year Derbez made a number of changes
in the consular corps in the U.S.A., that included the replacement of Georgina
Lagos, then Consul General in San Francisco. But Lagos did not go quietly.
-
- In an interview with the Mexican magazine Proceso, Lagos
noted the important role she and five other consul generals in California
had played in the growing acceptance of the matrícula consular.
She was especially critical of the timing, saying the assignment changes
should not have been made at the very time the Mexican consuls had California
state legislators eating out of their hands.
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- http://www.mexidata.info/id303.html
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- Barbara Coe Chairman - California Coalition for Immigration
Reform http://www.ccir.net
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