February 09, 2007

Democrats, Mexican leaders demand immigration "reform". Together, in Washington DC

As previously discussed, a few members of the Mexican House of Representatives traveled to Washington DC yesterday to speak with their counterparts - all Democrats - in our House. Those Democrats appear to have lost their way and forgotten who they're supposed to be representing.

Reporting on this event is hard to come by, but Lou Dobbs mentioned it on yesterday's show. Surprisingly, the New York Times News Service showed up for the event, but only three papers - not including the NYT itself - appear to have published the report ("Mexican and U.S. lawmakers call for deportation moratorium", link).

The United States should stop deporting illegal immigrants and separating families while Congress works on reforming immigration laws, a group of lawmakers from Latin America and several Democratic House members said Thursday.

The foreign delegates from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua, on a two-day visit to Capitol Hill, pledged to work with their U.S. counterparts to fix the immigration system, which they said has led to a "family crisis" in Mexico and a staggering loss of life along the border. They also promised to help improve security, which they said was of paramount importance, especially after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

I'm sure they said that, but whether they mean it is doubtful. I also wonder whether that pledge - if reciprocated by U.S. elected officials - is a violation of any of our laws.

Jose Jacques Medina, a member of the Congress in Mexico who led the delegation, said that the immigration crisis is a human problem that begs a human solution and that the U.S., Mexico and other nations should work together to become "one America on one continent."

You can see an older video of him in this 8Meg WMV file. Audio from 2/5/07 is apparently available at preview.tinyurl.com/28kr69, but you need to be a Pacifica subscriber or something to access it.

The NYT does include six paragraphs from our side, then:

The U.S. and foreign lawmakers are pushing for a broad immigration law that would give illegal immigrants a path to legal residency and citizenship.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, a strong proponent of such a law, said immigration is a "justice issue."

"We must accept and welcome brothers and sisters who have invested in this country. We must reunite families. We must make moms and sons, one," she said.

Other House members at the press conference included Reps. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., Janice Schakowsky, D-Ill. and Hilda Solis, D-Calif., who spearheaded the meetings with the foreign lawmakers.

And, in a charming note, they brought "Citizen Saul" Arellano along as a prop. Over a dozen Mexican officials will be meeting with Elvira Arellano today, as the AP reports (apparently they don't have reporters in Washington who could have covered the press conference above).

Posted to Immigration2007a at February 9, 2007 12:01 PM

Comments

These foreign officials come here shamelessly demanding that we fix our immigration laws when they are the true culprits responsible for the sorry state of their economies. And our pathetic Democratic Congressmen meet with them and apparently say nothing about Latin America's responsibility to put their affairs in order. This is an outrage.

Posted by: Horace at February 9, 2007 12:31 PM

The call by these Mexican agents/legislators for a moritorium seems to show that the recent minimal crackdown on illegals is having some effect. We should not stop our laws just when we are starting to enforce it.

BCP
http://beercanpolitics.blogspot.com

Posted by: BCP at February 10, 2007 03:18 PM

The criminal invasion force sends forth the suits. They are demanding we stop enforcing our laws, stop defending our right to exist. mexico wants to crush us as surely as islam wishes to erase Israel. They don't have the firepower to do it by force, so they send in the lawyers, escorting millions of wombs, set to detonate in the proximity of our social service agencies. Bush has loaded the government with traitors to assist in the takeover. See it for what it is. It is war.

Posted by: Jeebie at February 11, 2007 10:50 AM

These Mexican politicians have no shame, not only coming here and putting pressure on our politicians to pander to their wishes, they also have no shame in using this child as a pawn in their game. The Democrats and Republicans should be ashamed to be meeting with these politicians. Mexico has no say concerning our policies. It's time for our leadership in this country to remind them of that. Instead, these people need to return to Mexico and concern themselves with cleaning up the corruption that is Mexico.

Posted by: American Woman at February 12, 2007 12:04 AM