US moves to fence out Mexican illegals

Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said today that the government will try to persuade US President George Bush not to sign a bill that would extend a fence along the border to stop millions who cross illegally.

In a news conference, Derbez strongly criticised the barrier, which the Senate approved yesterday.

Congress has abandoned Mexico’s top priority: an immigration accord that would have allowed more Mexicans to work legally in the United States. Bush had proposed a temporary worker programme that would have given three-year work visas to those with jobs lined up in the US

Instead, US lawmakers have focused on increasing security along the border.

The House of Representatives and Senate have manoeuvred to speed construction of a 1,125-km double-layer fence along the United States’ southern border aimed at keeping migrants and criminals from entering the country illegally.

A House-Senate homeland security funding bill containing $1.2bn (€947m) was passed and sent to President Bush yesterday.

The added security has angered Mexico, which sees the actions as a militarization of the border.

Derbez said if the full US Congress approves what he calls a wall, Mexico will send a letter strongly condemning the measure. Asked by a reporter if that meant the government would try to “dissuade” Bush from signing the bill into law, he replied: “Without a doubt.”

“We will work to try and make President Bush and his administration understand the reasons why the Mexican government thinks this is the wrong thing to do,” Derbez said. “We think it is a gesture that doesn’t reflect the friendship between the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean and the United States.”

Derbez added that Mexican migrants “are not terrorists” and are just looking for work opportunities.

Derbez’s remarks came a day after his office said in a statement that the border wall “will harm the bilateral relationship” and was “against the spirit of cooperation that is needed to guarantee security on the common border”.

Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department said that only a comprehensive immigration reform would stop millions of Mexicans sneaking across its northern desert and swimming over the Rio Grande into the United States.