Angered by what they perceive as a hardening US stance on immigration-related issues,
Mexicans from a variety of political forces are mobilizing to support migrants north of their border. For the first time,
leaders of Mexican immigrants residing in the US and Canada convened a meeting in the Mexican capital to demand stronger action
from the government of President Felipe Calderon. Held November 16-17, the sometimes raucous First Parliament of Mexican Migrant
Leaders attracted nearly 600 participants. Twenty Mexican legislators from different political parties and representatives
of the National Migration Institute (INM) were on hand for the proceedings.
Fired up by the mounting deportations of
undocumented Mexicans from the US, some activists at the Mexico City meeting called on the Calderon administration to cease
trade, investment, anti-crime and security negotiations with the US until Washington puts a moratorium on immigration law
enforcement raids and deportations.
"Immigration reform and a path to citizenship could be the next steps to take,"
said Ema Lozano, president of the Chicago-based Centro Sin Fronteras. "What's urgent at this moment is to negotiate a halt
to deportations."
According to the Mesoamerican Migrant Movement, about 22,000 people are deported from the United
States to Mexico every month.
The Calderon administration's posture on migration issues is coming under increasing
fire from across the Mexican political spectrum. Even Jorge Castaņeda, a former Fox administration foreign minister, has criticized
the Calderon government for allegedly not doing enough on the migrant question.
President Calderon is urging US presidential
candidates to refrain from turning migrants into "hostages" of the 2008 election, but his administration is negotiating an
expanded anti-drug control agreement with Washington in addition to stepping up border controls in both the north and south
of Mexico.
In Mexico City, migrant leaders agreed to constitute the parliament as a permanent organization not tied
to any particular political party. Unveiled at the meeting, the so-called Missouri
Plan proposes to exclusively reserve ten new seats for deputies and two new seats for senators in the Mexican Congress for
Mexican migrants living abroad. Parliament members likewise urged the Mexican federal government to establish a cabinet-level
ministry of migrant affairs.
Other goals outlined at the meeting included promoting the political participation of
migrants in both US and Mexican elections, and earmarking one cent of every dollar in remittances for a fund set up
to help pay the healthcare costs of migrant children in the US. In a solemn moment, First Parliament participants
observed one minute of silence for the nearly 400 people who have died trying to cross the US border this year.
Federal
Congressman Jose Edmundo Martinez of the Institutional Revolutionary Party characterized the gathering as a "watershed" event
that could force more official attention on the migrant issue.
An unscheduled speech by deported US immigration activist
Elvira Arellano drew sharp rebukes from some attendees but enthusiastic responses from others. Arellano announced she was
commencing a hunger strike November 16 to protest US immigration policies and to pressure the Calderon government into taking
a tougher stand with Washington. She said the hunger strike would last until December 12, the Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe
in Mexico. Echoing calls to halt negotiations with Washington until the immigration issue has been addressed, a tearful Arellano
contended that Mexico could not economically or socially absorb an estimated 6 million Mexicans who face deportation from
the US.
"Our government has remained silent as we are treated like criminals and terrorists in the United States,"
Arellano said. "When a mother, a child or a worker is deported, our government is silent."
Prior to the meeting, Arellano
said she was organizing a network of migrant relatives to make the immigration issue a political priority in Mexico.
Objecting
to Arellano's speech, federal Deputy Maria Dolores Gonzalez Sanchez, of the conservative National Action Party, blasted the
migrant parliament for supposedly being a political show staged by the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).
Evoking catcalls, Gonzalez labeled the meeting "a PRD spectacle and an insult to national sovereignty."
In another
pro-migrant event, practitioners of two distinct musical genres banded together on November 18 for a massive concert
attended by an estimated 150,000 people in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey. Sharing the bill were the norteņo
balladeers Los Tigres del Norte, and the Jaguares hard rock legends.
"With their songs Paisano and Cage of Gold, among
others, Los Tigres del Norte address the theme of migration in a timely manner," said Katzir Meza, cultural events director
for the Monterrey Universal Cultures Forum 2007. "(Jaguares) has a record of participation. Both groups have contributed to
migration, human rights and justice causes."
The Tigres/Jaguares mega-concert was preceded by a Monterrey dialogue
on migrant issues moderated by TV Azteca national news host Javier Solorzano.
—————————— Sources:
Terra.com/EFE, November 19, 2007. La Jornada, November 16, 17 and 18, 2007. Articles by Jose Antonio Roman, editorial
staff and the Notimex news agency. Proceso/Apro, November 18, 2007. El Sur/Agencia
Reforma, November 17, 2007. Article by Adriana Garcia. El Diario de Juarez, November 17, 2007. Frontera/SUN, November 16,
2007. Univision, November 16 and 17, 2007. Cimacnoticias.com, October 11 and 22, 2007; November 16, 2007. Articles
by Leticia Puente Beresford and Hypatia Velasco.
—————————— Frontera
NorteSur (FNS) Center for Latin American and Border Studies New Mexico State University Las Cruces, New Mexico
——————————
(Reprinted with authorization from
Frontera NorteSur, a free, on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news source. FNS can be found at http://frontera.nmsu.edu/)
Translation FNS
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