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Immigration See other Immigration Articles Title: Mexico's Fox Says U.S. to Give Disaster Aid to Illegal Migrants Mexico's Fox Says U.S. to Give Disaster Aid to Illegal Migrants Sept. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico's President Vicente Fox helped persuade the U.S. government to relax controls on illegal immigrants so they can receive aid for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Any of the 145,000 Mexicans living in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama who don't have documents will qualify for help finding family members, getting food and receiving other assistance even if they don't have proper documents, according to Fox's office in Mexico City. About 11 million Mexicans live in the U.S., more than half illegally. Fox, 63, has responded to the devastation caused by Katrina by sending a navy ship loaded with rescue equipment and a convoy of trucks carrying mobile kitchens and food -- as well as placing soldiers in the U.S., the first time Mexican troops have been in the country since World War II. ``Fox has this opportunity for a very public display of goodwill toward the U.S. and to show he cares about his people in the U.S.,'' said Joy Langston, a political studies professor at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics in Mexico City. Since his election in 2000, Fox has made a priority helping Mexican migrants in the U.S., who were largely ignored by previous governments. Fox pushed President George W. Bush for a bill to give legal status to the estimated 6 million undocumented Mexicans in the U.S. and signed a law that gave Mexicans living abroad the right to vote for the first time in Mexico's presidential elections next year. After the Aug. 29 hurricane hit the U.S. Gulf Coast, Fox pledged help for illegal immigrants there. No `Pressure' ``Those who don't have documents at this time in that region of the U.S. won't be subject to any pressure or persecution so they can obtain assistance from American authorities,'' Fox said in a Sept. 2 speech in the southern Mexican city of Morelia. The U.S. has also said it won't sanction companies that hire workers displaced by Hurricane Katrina who cannot present appropriate documents. Mexicans living in the U.S. sent home $16.6 billion in 2004, second in foreign currency earnings behind oil exports, according to the central bank. Remittances jumped 17 percent in the first seven months in 2005 to $10.97 billion from a year ago. The number of Mexican migrants in the U.S. have grown 15-fold to more than 11 million in 2004 from 760,000 in 1970, an average annual growth rate of 8 percent, according to a study by the Washington- based Pew Hispanic Center. Mobile Consulates Fox has set up mobile consulates in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Mobile, Alabama to provide aid to Mexicans who are wary of seeking help from U.S. authorities because they may lack immigration papers, said Carlos Gonzalez, chief of the Houston consulate. The mobile units were introduced three years ago to bring services to the fields and factories where Mexicans labor. ``The government's first priority is to provide protection and support for Mexicans who live abroad and take actions as much as possible that improve their quality of life,'' Juan Bosco, the foreign relations ministry's North America chief, said in an interview in Mexico City. Migrant organizations, such as the Washington-based League of United Latin American Citizens, are working with Mexican officials and Hispanic media to persuade Mexicans displaced by Katrina to seek help, said Hector Flores, president of the Lulac, the largest Hispanic advocacy organization in the U.S. with 100,000 members. ``The issue now is how we educate people about what is available and steer them to the right programs where they won't be turned away and where they're not going to be arrested either,'' Flores said. The Mexican government's effort to aid its citizens has been limited by security measures in the storm-damaged areas, Flores said. For example, Flores' plan to tour New Orleans with Juan Carlos Romero, the governor of the state of Guanajuato, was canceled because the U.S. denied permission, Flores said. Permission Required ``I believe they've acted as responsibly as they could given the fact that they have to ask permission to come in and participate,'' he said. Before the 1990s, migrants were ignored and even shaken down by corrupt customs officers at the border when they returned home, said Rafael Alarcon, a professor with the College of the Northern Border in Tijuana. Former President Carlos Salinas set up a program in 1989 to reduce the corruption migrants faced at the border in a first attempt to recognize the rights of millions of Mexicans residing in the U.S. Fox, who ended seven decades of one-party rule with his July 2000 election, has gone much further, setting up literacy classes, health care and other services for migrants. He created the Institute for Mexicans Abroad in 2003 to coordinate all migrant programs and named a Cabinet-level adviser on immigration issues. ``The government has understood that it's important to have a good relationship with the migrant community,'' said Alarcon, who has written a book on immigration and edits an immigration policy magazine. ``Besides the remittances they send home, the government is hoping migrants can have an influence on U.S. policy.'' To contact the reporters on this story: Thomas Black in Mexico City at tblack@bloomberg.net Last Updated: September 9, 2005 12:46 EDT
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#1. To: Jen (#0)
The official count is always too low. Only the American citizens will be required to have proper documents.
Yeah, isn't that generous of FOX to ask Bush to take good care of his people and ask that they NOT have to be legal?
Now, now, these are people in dire straits. Assist them, THEN deport them. Not the other way around.
#4. To: mirage (#3)
I didn't say don't help them. Don't they always get help in the good ol' U.S. of A. All I'm saying is isn't it nice of FOX to be SO concerned that WE in the good ol' USA treat HIS people right, so he doesn't have to....or is it they NEVER did?
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