http://conservativeactionalerts.com/blog_post/show/2103The Mexican Senate has approved a new immigration measure that seeks protections of unauthorized migrants within its borders, as well as more services for them.
The bill also cracks down on undocumented immigrants in Mexico, allowing federal police to check immigration documents of people they encounter during their work, and imposing fines on employers who hire people who are illegally there.
The immigration reform measure, passed 84-to-15 by the Mexican senate, comes amid mounting international pressure for Mexico to address what many Central Americans who illegally pass through there – usually en route to the United States -- long have complained is abusive treatment by Mexican authorities.
“Mexico has had just as much trouble keeping people out of Mexico who trying to make their way to the United States as the United States has had keeping illegal immigrants out,” said David Abalos, a Mexican American author of several books about Latinos. “This is Mexico’s attempt to put legal parameters around that problem.”
The measure, which is likely to go through fine-tuning in coming weeks, calls for providing migrants – regardless of their legal status – access to educational, health, legal and social services.
But in Mexico, as in the United States, plans to provide services to undocumented immigrants is drawing criticism from Mexican residents who see the move as rewarding law-breakers.
“That’s all we needed!” said a reader who posted a comment on the
www.informador.com.mx article about the Mexican Senate measure. “Now we’re going to have [illegal immigrants] living off our taxes. We’re already too generous, why do more?”
Wrote another: “How is it possible that we want to encourage the world to pass through Mexico? Now our borders will be inundated by immigrants from China, India, Africa, Poland, etc. – in addition to all the ones from Central and South America!”
But Mexican Senator Humberto Andrade praised the measure, saying that it would help avoid a repeat of the massacre last year of 72 migrants by suspected drug traffickers.
Officials from the migrants’ native lands – Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Ecuador and Brazil – lashed out at Mexico, saying it had to do more to protect migrants within its borders from violence and abuse.
Last year, in discussing the massacre, Mexican senators said that Mexico -- the largest source of illegal immigration to the United States -- “cannot demand respect for its nationals in the United States” when it “does not assure dignified treatment” of migrants on its own turf, according to published reports.
Topic: South of the Border: Mexico 'cracks down on undocumented immigrants' (Read 447 times)