President Bush and President Fox will meet to discuss immigration issues.
Mexico does not stop fighting for the millions of undocumented immigrants who are living and working in the United States. Representatives of the Mexican government are pressuring U.S. politicians, lawyers and state officials for amnesty for them, to give them legal status.
When the presidents of Mexico and the United States meet in Crawford, Texas this weekend, immigration is one of the topics they will discuss. In January, President Bush proposed a guest-worker program, which would allow undocumented workers to legalize their status for three years. But for the millions of Mexicans currently living and working in the United States, this is not enough.
Give us residency
Grassroots and activist organizations have rallied around the undocumented immigrants’ needs and have created a strong lobby representing their interests. For immigration attorneys, the possibility of being able to adjust the status for undocumented immigrants is a priority; however a temporary adjustment is not what they are looking for. Moreover, they feel that a temporary guest worker program is not the solution to the illegal immigration problem.
According to the Instituto de los Mexicanos en el Exterior (IME) [Institute for Mexicans Abroad], the ideal situation for undocumented immigrants is to get a green card and eventually U.S. citizenship. They also need better access to education, health care, social welfare and other benefits offered by federal, state and city agencies.
Fighting hard
The IME, an initiative of President Vincente Fox, functions as a branch of the Mexican Department of Foreign Affairs. It was the IME that pushed for changes in American immigration law, suggesting reforms and introducing programs for working immigrants. IME has big plans for the near future: to organize a conference of Mexican and American mayors in Mexico; and to press for U.S. officials to accept the matricula consular – an identity card issued by the Mexican consulates to its nationals – as a valid identification document.
No photos and fingerprints
Mexico has a treaty with the United States regarding border traffic, which issues laser visas to Mexicans, allowing them to cross into the United States for three days; however, once inside U.S. territory, they have to remain close to the border. This type of visa is given to people who need to travel often to border towns for business or family reasons. Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security, Asa Hutchinson, recently announced that those who travel from Mexico with this type of visa do not need to be photographed or fingerprinted at the U.S. border; it is a gesture the United States made toward Vincente Fox, during his visit to President Bush's rancho in Crawford, and one small step in the right direction. Mexicans coming in with different types of visas, however, still have to go through regular immigration procedures.
