September 04, 2003
Memo From Mexico, By
Allan Wall
Shocker In Saltillo—U.S. Politician Sprouts
Backbone!
Saltillo is the capital of the
state of Coahuila in northern Mexico. It has fine
museums, colonial architecture and a relatively cool
climate. It's certainly worth a visit. And, before we
met, my wife lived there while obtaining her university
degree.
Saltillo was also the scene last
Friday, August 29th, 2003, of the most recent
encounter between American and Mexican state
legislators—the “Conferencia Legislativa Fronteriza”—the
Border Legislative Conference. It was attended by
American state legislators from Texas, Arizona and
California, and Mexican state legislators from Coahuila,
Chihuahua, Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon.
The meeting seemed to have run
smoothly enough until after the 3 p.m. lunch break. When
the delegates returned, a full-fledged debate over U.S.
immigration policy ensued.
In the Mexican press, a front-page
headline describing the conference read “Xenophobia
divides the legislators”. (“Xenofobia
divide a legisladores” El Siglo de Torreón
August 30th, 2003 [cached
version])
In Mexico, “xenophobia” refers to
any U.S. attempt, however feeble, to control
its own border.
Ricardo Castro, a Mexican
legislator from the state of Chihuahua, one of Mexico’s
more prosperous states, informed the conference that
illegal immigration from Mexico to the U.S.
cannot be stopped. Which means that Castro, like so
many other
Mexican politicians, doesn’t
want it to stop.
Another Chihuahua legislator,
Victor Hugo Estala, called U.S. immigration policy
“xenophobic, de-humanizing and racist.”
Estala demanded to know why the
U.S. government
tolerates groups which “hunt illegals like
animals in Arizona.” He mentioned the Barnett
brothers (the
public-spirited owners of Cross Rail Ranch) by name
(fame!), and attacked the newspapers of Arizona. Estala
charged said Arizona newspapers with
inciting Americans to form groups such as
Ranch Rescue and
American Patrol.
American Patrol, including its
Arizona division “American Border Patrol” is already
well known in the Mexican media, where it has been
referred to as a
“paramilitary group” They’ve even shown footage of
Glenn Spencer on Mexican television!
Far from being a “paramilitary
group” though, American Patrol is an activist
organization informing the public. Its
website derives maybe 99% of its content from
articles in the mainstream media. Read American Patrol
and you can see on a daily basis how far the
balkanization of America has gone. As for
American Border Patrol, its function is to
carry out surveillance on the border and report the
presence of illegals to the U.S. Border Patrol (and
what’s wrong with that?).
The infamous
Barnett brothers—well, they're
protecting their property. I’ve discovered that
Vicente Fox
protects his ranch, too. In fact, property owners in
Mexico go to great lengths to keep out trespassers.
If anybody does object to the
existence of groups like Ranch Rescue, the solution is
simple: the U.S.
government should control the border. If the
border were under control, such organizations would
never have come into existence.
The real issue is that Mexico’s
politicians (and their
American collaborators) don’t want anybody
opposing illegal immigration.
If the Chihuahua delegation was
really serious about human rights, they could be
investigating the ongoing
murders of young women in the border city of
Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua. Or the Coahuila delegates
could investigate the murders of Central
American immigrants in the
city of Saltillo itself.
But, being Mexican domestic issues,
these weren't on the conference table…unlike U.S.
immigration policy.
At the Saltillo conference,
Chihauhua’s indignant Estala [send him
mail ] looked straight at the Arizona delegation and
self-righteously demanded
“Why do
the Americans not act with firmness to stop these
aggressions? Why the rejection of everyone who resembles
a Mexican?” [Full
speech, in
Spanish]
[“Por qué los norteamericanos no actúan
con firmeza para detener estas agresiones? ¿Por qué el
repudio a todo aquel que tenga el aspecto de mexicano?”]
On questions of immigration,
American officials tend to capitulate to Mexican
officials. But in Saltillo, astonishingly, the Arizona
delegation did not. They refused a Mexican demand to
protest to Washington over the “hunting” of illegals in
their state. The answer given by Arizona state
representative Ray Barnes is worth repeating:
According to the Siglo,
The
representative of the Arizona congress, 60ish Ray Barnes
got red in the face and with unconcealed anger, rejected
the appeal, saying that it was illegal according to the
Constitution, that he had sworn an oath when taking
office, and it was unjust of the Mexican legislators
to ask him to violate his oath and abandon his charge,
because they were defending something illegal.
“I
think it’s unfair that Mexican legislators ask me ....
to defend something illegal....it’s unfair that this
legislative body accuse us of being discriminatory,
because we refuse to violate the laws of the United
States...” (“... no es justo que este cuerpo
legislativo nos acuse de discriminatorios, porque nos
negamos a violar las leyes de los Estados Unidos...”)
But the entire American delegation
did not close ranks with Ray Barnes. According to the
Siglo story, the U.S. Hispanic legislators sided
with the Mexican critics!
US
Representatives divided among themselves
The
legislators of Hispanic ancestry were not in agreement
with their Arizona companions. One of them, from Texas,
said that in his state the armed groups that hunt
illegals act outside the law and will be punished,
pronto! SE DIVIDEN LOS
REPRESENTANTES DE EU
Los legisladores de ascendencia
“hispana”, no estuvieron de acuerdo con sus compañeros
de Arizona. Uno de ellos, de Texas, dijo que en su
estado los grupos armados que cazan ilegales actúan
fuera de la ley y que “pronto serán castigados”.
One of these “legislators of
Hispanic ancestry,” Texas’ state representative Roberto
Gutierrez, went off on a little tirade of his own:
“When
have you seen, in the United States, a Canadian, legal
or illegal, mistreated? Does the brown skin of the
Mexicans disturb Americans since they’re not as
light-skinned as the Canadians?”
Ah, the Canadian Argument. I‘ve
heard this before..
We might as well admit it—Mexican
immigrants and Canadian immigrants are not treated
equally.
Mexicans are treated better than
Canadians.
Consider:
