MEXICO CITY - (KRT) - A top Mexican official said Thursday that "there is no wall that can stop" the flow of illegal workers from Mexico to the United States and that money spent on such measures would be better used to "regularize" immigration and fight terrorism. Interior Minister Santiago Creel, a likely presidential candidate next year, said U.S. attempts to halt migration over the last 100 years have failed. And so will new measures approved by the U.S. Senate this week and signed into law by President Bush, he said.
"We see this as bad because building walls in no way contributes to the construction of a good neighborhood," Creel said during a news conference with foreign journalists.
"It seems to us an extreme measure," said Creel, whose powerful ministry is responsible for internal political order, national security and Mexico's National Migration Institute.
The measures to dissuade illegal immigration approved by the U.S. Senate were included in an $82 billion military-operations spending bill, which passed unanimously Tuesday. The provisions include a ban on issuing driver's licenses to illegal workers. The bill also provides funds to complete a San Diego-area border fence separating California and Mexico.
But Creel complained that while Mexico is addressing American concerns - such as deporting about 250,000 foreigners a year who use this country as a trampoline to the United States - it has received nothing in return.
Neither the U.S. Congress nor the Bush administration has moved forward on immigration issues that Mexico wants resolved, such as an expanded guest-worker program and some type of "regularization" plan to make illegal workers legal over time, he said.
The Mexican government does look positively on some immigration proposals, such as one being promoted by Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and John McCain, R-Ariz., because such plans include both a guest-worker program and a path to legal permanent residence, Creel said.
---