Fox of Mexico to get tough with the U.S.A.
By Barnard R. Thompson
In recent days Mexican President Vicente Fox and
his Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Luis Ernesto Derbez, have sent barbed messages to the U.S.A.
The main message — Mexico plans to get tough with the U.S.A. regarding the treatment of migrant workers in this
country and the services they should receive.
During a speech in Leon, Guanajuato, Fox said that
he would absolutely defend the matrícula consular, the Mexican identity card that is issued to qualifying nationals
residing abroad, regardless of their immigration status. The president told the
audience, that included U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson: “The matrícula consular (cards)
are again being questioned, however we will defend them with tooth and nail because our fellow countrymen are neither criminals
nor terrorists. They are people with dignity and workers who contribute a great
deal to the North American economy.”
Matrícula consular cards, that in essence
document the undocumented, are now accepted in many communities nationwide to open bank accounts, for leases or rentals and
to qualify for needs such as utilities and public services.
Currently however a bill is pending in the U.S. House
of Representatives, that if passed would make the matrícula consular an unacceptable form of identification with federal
agencies. In September a House subcommittee passed a resolution that would prohibit
banks from accepting the cards as identification.
Meeting with reporters in Mexico City, Foreign Minister
Derbez said that after the November elections Fox would visit California — and Derbez pointed a finger directly at Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger. Derbez said that the Mexican president would have a “very
tough talk” with the governor.
According to Derbez two subjects would top the agenda. First, the president will explain that the matrícula consular meets all security
requirements, plus he will tell the governor that Mexican migrants must not be viewed as criminals.
Noting that Schwarzenegger recently vetoed the bill
to allow the issuance of driver’s licenses to immigrants, Derbez secondly said that the matrícula consular “should
be sufficient in order to obtain a driver’s license.” He said that
the Mexican document is issued only after the applicant has met all requisites and submitted to a criminal background check.
In
the meantime, some leaders of migrant rights organizations in California are calling for a series of boycotts as part of their
demand that Schwarzenegger issue driver’s licenses to migrants who cannot prove legal residency in the state. As a beginning, some 1,000 people marched in Los Angeles on October 16, where California State Senator
Gil Cedillo, the author of the driver’s license bill vetoed by Schwarzenegger, declared: “We are not terrorists…. The governor is an immigrant like we are immigrants, and because of that we insist
that the governor honor his word and give us the same license he has."
Hearing of the boycott plans in California, Derbez
pushed the envelope right to the edge of intervention in the sovereign affairs of California.
“I believe that the Mexican community must
send the message that it is sending, which is we represent (something) positive for the state and the country, therefore we
ask we be treated like we should be treated … and if migrants decide to conduct a peaceful boycott, so that their positive
side is taken into account, it is proper,” the diplomat told the Mexico City daily Reforma.
During all of this the Mexican Senate is reaching
across the northern border in ways it would quickly condemn if done the other way around.
In late September senators unanimously
approved sending a letter to Schwarzenegger to express concern over his veto of the driver’s license bill. (It is currently taking similar actions with Arizona and Proposition 200.)
Actually the Mexican intervention in California was done at the request of state legislators,
members of the California Latino Legislative Caucus who had met with the senators during a visit to Mexico City, this according
to Assemblyman Marco Antonio Firebaugh who chairs the caucus.
Early this year Derbez made a number of changes in
the consular corps in the U.S.A., that included the replacement of Georgina Lagos, then Consul General in San Francisco. But Lagos did not go quietly.
In an interview with the Mexican magazine Proceso,
Lagos noted the important role she and five other consul generals in California had played in the growing acceptance of the
matrícula consular. She was especially critical of the timing, saying
the assignment changes should not have been made at the very time the Mexican consuls had California state legislators eating
out of their hands.
