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MIGRATION: Governments Take United Stance Against Proposed U.S. Border Fence
By Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, Jan 9, 2006 (IPS) - The governments of five countries of Central
America, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Mexico met Monday to join
forces against the U.S. plan to build a high security fence along portions
of its borders to keep out undocumented immigrants, a goal that many U.S.
citizens support.
The foreign ministers and other delegates from Colombia, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican Republic,
meeting in Mexico City, criticised the U.S. immigration reform bill that
will likely be considered by the Senate in February.
If it is passed, the bill would hurt millions of immigrants from Latin
America and the Caribbean, whose remittances are essential to the economies
of their home countries.
However, the ministers clarified that they respect "the sovereign right of
countries to follow their own migration and security policies."
"Incomplete measures that only involve the stiffening of immigration
policies do not represent an integral solution for dealing with the
challenges posed by the phenomenon of migration," they stated in a joint
declaration.
Activist Enrique Morones with Ángeles de la Frontera (Border Angels), a
migrant welfare group, told IPS by telephone from San Diego, California that
"we agree with (the ministers') initiatives, because by working together,
governments and society, we will stop this stupidity, which is fuelled by
racism and xenophobia."
The government representatives meeting in the Mexican capital announced that
they had set up a working group to exchange proposals on migration issues
and promote respect for the human rights of people of Latin American
extraction living in the United States.
Ángeles de la Frontera is planning a protest convoy that will set out on
Feb. 2 from the U.S. border with Mexico and will end up in Washington, D.C.
at an unspecified date.
"There will be hundreds of us. We want the United States to see that
immigrants are very upset by the deaths along the border, the construction
of fences, and by the perception that we are criminals, drug addicts - the
enemy," said Morones.
On Dec. 30, Guillermo Martínez, a young Mexican, died on the U.S. border
after he was shot by a U.S. border patrol agent.
The incident drew a diplomatic protest from the Mexican government of
Vicente Fox.
Martínez became one of the more than 3,800 people who died along the border
between 1993 and 2005, most of whom fell victim to thirst, heatstroke,
exhaustion or exposure when they tried to cross less carefully guarded
desert areas.
The proposal to build 1,100 kilometres of new high security fencing along
the 3,200-kilometre border separating the United States and Mexico would
further reduce the areas where would-be migrants would attempt to cross. But
according to informed observers, it would not cut off the flow of
immigration.
Authorities in Mexico estimate that around 400,000 immigrants made it into
the United States last year without legal documents, despite the already
stiff controls in place, while one million were intercepted and deported in
their attempt to enter the country.
Some 40 million people of Latin American birth or descent live in the United
States today, including eight million undocumented immigrants.
The bill that would entail the construction of new fences with cameras,
lighting and sensors was approved on Dec. 16 by the U.S. House of
Representatives, but must still make it through the Senate.
The bill, which would make unlawful presence in the United States, currently
a civil offence, a felony, drew loud protests from governments in Latin
America and human rights organisations.
Guatemalan Vice President Eduardo Stein said the bill was "an affront to
Latin America by a government that claims to be our partner, but which
apparently only wants our money and our merchandise, and that sees our
people as an epidemic."
In a poll carried out by Fox News in October, 51 percent of respondents said
they were in favour of building a fence along the border with Mexico.
And 57 percent of those interviewed in a December survey by CNN (Cable News
Network), the newspaper USA Today, and the Gallup polling firm called on
U.S. lawmakers and the George W. Bush administration to adopt changes in the
country's immigration policies.
The polls showed that a majority of respondents see illegal immigration as a
negative phenomenon that must be curbed.
"There is great manipulation of public opinion in the United States, and
some political factions are using the immigration issue to win votes," said
Fabienne Venet, director of Sin Fronteras (No Borders), a non-governmental
Mexican organisation that works on behalf of migrants and carries out
research on migration issues.
Venet said she hopes that the united front put up by the Latin American
governments, led by Mexico, against the construction of the fence along the
border will be successful.
But she warned that it could fail if the governments do not act with their
sights set on long-term goals, and if they do not come up with coherent
proposals.
Called together by Mexico, several Latin American governments held a
conference in 1996 on migration whose central focus was to design policies
and strategies with a view to influencing the issue in the United States.
But the initiative gradually petered out, and did not meet any of its
objectives.
According to Venet, the governments must maintain a united front and hammer
out joint strategies to attempt to bring about a shift in the widespread
perception in the United States of immigrants as a threat.
In 2004, immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean sent home 45
billion dollars in remittances, double the total of a decade
earlier,according to the Social Outlook 2005 report by the Economic
Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
These funds lift more than 2.5 million people out of poverty, the regional
U.N. agency estimates.
(END)
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