Immigration Laws: March, 2002 - Number #4

Presidents Bush and Fox are scheduled to meet on March 22, 2002 to discuss a new immigration agreement. One expert said that, before September 11, "Bush was saying Mexico was the No. 1 foreign policy interest. Now the Bush presidency is defining itself in other ways. There will be the continuing friendship, but it won't have the attention it once had. It's a lost moment in history."

INS Commissioner James Ziglar advocates a guest worker program. He said a guest worker program that reduced illegal Mexico-US migration might make it easier to combat terrorism: "If we could find a way to move a substantial portion of the current illegal flow from Mexico into legal channels via some kind of temporary-worker program and combine that with a new cooperative law enforcement arrangement with Mexico, we could benefit the US economy, we could substantially reduce illegal immigration. And, it could enable the Border Patrol and other law enforcement agencies to focus on the bad guys coming across - not on the flow of people who just want to get into this country to work."

Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, an advocate of legalization and a Mexican immigrant, says "a lot of momentum is beginning to build up again" for legalization. Those supporting legalization argue that legalization is one way for the US government to know more about the unauthorized foreigners in the US. Representative Tom Tancredo (R-CO), chair of the Congressional Caucus on Immigration Reform, opposes any legalization program.

There were an estimated 8.7 million unauthorized migrants in the US in 2000, including 3.9 million Mexicans.

Migrants. Some 360 Ecuadorian migrants traveling aboard two boats were intercepted in February 2002 by the US Coast Guard off the coast of Mexico; the Mexican government announced that they would be returned to Ecuador. A third boat was seized 200 miles from Ecuador in rough seas. The migrants reported that they brought food for seven days, but that they were at sea for 10 or more days as the ships became lost.

Most of the migrants reported that they paid smugglers $4,000 to $8,000 for the chance to join relatives in New York City and earn higher wages-New York City has an estimated 600,000 Ecuadorians.

Mexico is rapidly becoming a transit hub for migrants from many countries trying to get to the US. Most of the foreigners detained on the Mexico-Guatemala border are Central Americans, but there are increasing numbers of migrants from Asia and the Middle East.

National Migration Institute Commissioner Felipe de Jesus Preciado in February 2002 told visiting Central American officials that Mexico aims to treat illegal migrants on its southern border in the same way as it has asked the United States to deal with Mexicans trying to enter that country illegally. President Vicente Fox in February 2002 said he would tighten security along Mexico's 870-kilometer border with Guatemala to stem the flow of illegal drugs, guns and immigrants.

Politics. Lazaro Cardenas, grandson of former President Lazaro Cardenas, became governor of Michoacan in February 2002. He promised to create jobs and help the state's two million migrants living in the United States: "It's our obligation to seek job and development opportunities in Michoacan so that in the future migrating is an option and not a necessity."

In February 2002, Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party chose Roberto Madrazo, former governor of the Gulf Coast state of Tabasco as its new leader. Madrazo edged out Beatriz Paredes, the party's legislative leader in the lower house of Congress and a former president of the national peasant farmers' federation, in an election in which persons sympathetic to the PRI could vote.

Economy. Mexico's economy shrank in 2001 for the first time since 1995, with GDP contracting 0.3 percent-in 1995, GDP shrank by 6.2 percent. Mexico's economy expanded 6.9 percent in 2000, but went into recession along with the US in 2001-- 85 percent of Mexican exports are to the US. Some 150,000 maquiladora workers were laid off in 2001, and another 50,000 are expected to become jobless in 2002.

Despite the recession and layoffs, Standard & Poor's Corp. raised Mexico's foreign debt rating to investment grade, BBB-minus, in February 2002, following similar upgrades by Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Inc.