Immigration Laws: February, 2002 - Number #4

Mexico and the US resumed their migration dialogue in January 2002, as Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda met with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. Powell said that the US remains committed to "regularizing the movement of Mexicans back and forth," but most experts expect regularization to be limited to some form of guest worker program.

Rafael Fernando de Castro of the Autonomous Technical Institute of Mexico said: "The most important change in Mexico's position is that they don't pretend they're going to get the whole enchilada [legalization] anymore."

Before September 11, the Mexican government, as well as US Hispanic groups, unions and migrant advocates, called for a generous legalization program that would enable Mexicans in the US to become legal immigrants and eventually US citizens. Some Republicans in Congress, notably Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX), wanted unauthorized Mexicans to become guest workers, not immigrants, and in December 2000 they blocked a proposal to allow some unauthorized farm workers to "earn" immigrant status.

During 2001, the push for earned legalization gained support. Earned legalization would permit unauthorized immigrants to become temporary legal residents with the right to work in the US. After one to three years of temporary legal status and continued employment, these migrants could apply for permanent resident alien or immigrant status.

Mexico's Supreme Court had made it easier to extradite Mexicans wanted for crimes committed in the US, but in October 2001 it blocked the extradition of criminal suspects facing life sentences in the United States in a 6-2 decision, on the grounds that the Mexico's Constitution holds that all people are capable of rehabilitation. The maximum prison sentence in Mexico is 40 years.

Returns/Remittances. Most years, some 2.5 million Mexicans living in the US return to Mexico in December for the holiday season. Many return with gifts that are subject to tariffs and other regulations, and Mexican border officials often demand bribes to allow returning migrants to take the gifts into Mexico.

President Fox and the Mexican government have made ending corruption among Mexican officials a high priority. Programa Paisano gives migrants a place to report requests for bribes. Paisano reported that, in December 2001, only three percent of the 3,500 migrants surveyed were asked for bribes to facilitate their entry into Mexico, down from 28 percent in earlier years.

Up to now, Western Union and Moneygram have handled most of the $8 billion in remittances from the US to Mexico, but Wells Fargo & Co and Grupo Financiero Bancomer SA announced plans in January 2002 to allow up to $1,000 to be transferred to Mexico for a flat fee of $10. In November 2001, Wells Fargo announced it would accept as identification for depositors seeking to open new accounts in the US so-called matricula consular, photo identification cards issued by Mexico's 48 consulates in the US for $29; the card is good for five years. US police departments, airlines, and stores have begun accepting matriculas as identification.

President Fox is trying to get "godfathers" to invest in poor Mexican communities. Tyson Foods promised to invest $17.5 million in 2002 to improve three of its plants that employ 4,500 workers in Durango. Fox is aiming to get $110 million invested by godfathers under his "Adopt-a-Community" program. Fox's government proposed the "padrino" program in July 2001, aimed at wealthy, influential Mexican-Americans willing to invest in their homeland.

Residents of the 1,400 communities selected were asked what their greatest needs were, and most asked for more jobs or better roads.

Economy. Toyota announced that it would build a manufacturing plant on a 700-acre site outside Tijuana in Baja California; it is expected to open in 2004. Toyota sold a record 1.75 million cars and trucks in the United States in 2001.

The number of maquiladoras almost doubled between 1991 and 2000, from about 2,000 to 3,800, and employment in maquiladoras more than doubled, from 550,000 to 1.3 million. However, in 2001, over 100 maquiladoras closed and 200,000 jobs were eliminated.

Mexico produced 1.8 million cars and trucks in 2001, and exported 75 percent. Volkswagen announced plans to spend $1 billion over five years to expand its Puebla complex, which assembles "beetles."

Mexico and the US are fighting about sugar. The US is a high-cost producer- US sugar prices are kept two to three times above world prices by import barriers that keep out sugar, much of which is produced in developing emigration countries, including the Caribbean. Mexico's sugar industry is the country's second-largest employer, after manufacturing, providing jobs for some 3.5 million people. Mexico believes that its sugar should have free access to the US under NAFTA; the US insists that Mexican sugar exports are limited by a side letter. In January 2002, in an effort to use surplus Mexican sugar, the Mexican Congress passed a 20 percent tax on soft drinks made with corn syrup, which is imported from the US. That prompted bottlers to begin using sugar only.

Pemex, the world's largest oil company in terms of employees, but fourth in production, was suspected of funneling $11 million in a losing effort to win the Mexican presidency of the Institutional Revolutionary Party.