Mexico And Central American Nations Condemn Border Fence

Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua condemn the plan to build hundreds of miles of triple-layered fencing along parts of the U.S. - Mexican border. The countries claim saying the fence would not stop illegal immigration:

"The position of Mexico and the other countries is that walls will not make a difference in terms of the solution to the migration problem," said Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez.

[. . .]

Guatemalan Foreign Minister Jorge Briz said major immigration reform in the United States was the only way to stop the wave of people heading northward.

"All of us are looking for a comprehensive migratory regulation so that millions of Latin Americans can continue working in and supporting the United States economy," Briz said.

[. . .]

Honduran Foreign Minister Milton Jimenez said he expected several South American and Caribbean countries to join Mexico and the Central Americans in issuing a joint declaration on the matter soon.

In December, the U.S. House approved a bill to build a fence about twice as long as the one approved by the Senate. The House plan sparked a wave of criticism from Latin American leaders, with Mexican President Vicente Fox comparing such a barrier to the Berlin Wall.

Fox [the Mexican President] reiterated his criticisms on Thursday.

"Building walls, constructing barriers on the border does not offer an efficient solution in a relationship of friends, neighbors and partners," Fox said in the border city of Tijuana. "We will go on defending the rights of our countrymen without rest or respite. With passion we will demand the full respect of their human rights."

The Associated Press reports Mexicans say it will take more than a fence to keep them out of the United States:

"We'll go under it, we'll go over it, we'll go through the air, the sea or the earth, but they're never going to stop us from crossing," said Jesus Santana, a Tijuana truck driver who was caught trying to cross and deported.

This is a common attitude among deportees. Martin Doriane, who has surveyed returning migrants for the last four years, said at least 95 percent of migrants caught and deported say they'll try again. A main reason is because they've sold everything they own in Mexico to pay to be smuggled in to the U.S.:

"They say, 'I had a roof and a frying pan in Mexico, but I sold both to come north, and went into debt, so what do I have to return to?'" Doraine said.

As long as most Mexicans accept illegal immigration as a fact of life they can't imagine changing, we will need to improve efforts to control the border. I wish we didn't need a barrier along the Mexican border. It looks bad. It's easily stigmatized as racist. Moreover, a barrier works. The construction of about 10 miles of steel and concrete barriers up to 15 feet high in San Diego has reduced illegal crossings in that sector by about 95 percent since 1992. Perhaps the illegal just relocate there crossing points, but as they have fewer options the Border Patrol's job becomes more feasible.

The wall should be substantial and effective, like Israel's 25 foot high wall, not one the illegal aliens have no problem crossing.

Comments

[Mr. So What]

Berlin Wall, here we come.

Look most of them are hard workers and they're willing to work at reasonable rates, not some overinflated union card carriers.

Even so, if you're a capitalist, you believe trade is essential. These people come, work hard, send some earnings back to Mexico, which raises the standard of living for Mexicans in general, every day giving the rest of the country the money it needs to stand on it's own.

We're bailing them out of some economic mess that just lines the their corrupt government's pockets, it's the best kind of aide to a neighboring country, WORK.

Last week's Economist reported that Mexico has tried to decriminalized small, personal quantities of illicit drugs. 92% of all arrests in Mexico are due to small quantities of illicit drugs. The reasoning was to alleviate the backlog of processing and refocus their troops and uncorrupted law enforcement to battle the big drug smugglers and corrupt officials of the northern areas of Mexico. Whatever you think about the "drug war" you have to acknowledge there's good reasoning behind this.

But they failed. Why? Because of pressure directly from Washington DC. Mexico is not autonomous its decisions, they are bogged down in this ridiculous cross-border "War on Drugs", when what we really need is law enforcement to battle violent crime.

Personally, I rather pay one of these guys to help me haul some trash to dump, knowing a few dollars of mine will go to his family, directly instead of trusting Washington DC to spend my tax dollars between two corrupt governments.

At least my dollars are getting something both of us, who knows what my tax dollars get us.

A wall, that's great. I'm sure Reagan would have loved to have seen that.

[Juan]

It's not the immigrants fault coming over to the USA it's their corrupt governments in Latin America that should be blame for and stop telling the USA whats right or wrong.