"Top Mexican official to meet with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Ridge in California"

Posted Thu, Jan 13, 2005 at 9:33 pm

AP:

Interior Secretary Santiago Creel said Thursday he will fly to a California border town to meet with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and again push for a plan granting legal status to millions of undocumented Mexicans living and working in the United States.

Creel said the meeting would take place Monday in Calexico, across the border from the larger Mexican city of Mexicali, 1,350 miles (2,160 kilometers) northwest of this country's capital, and would likely be his last face-to-face encounter with Ridge before the outgoing Homeland Security Secretary leaves his post.

He said the meeting would "pave the road to a prosperous migration accord," and added that sweeping reform in that area would help guarantee security along America's southern border...

So, what happens if we refuse to give them their "migration accord"? Does that mean they'll turn a blind eye to terrorists trying to sneak over the border? Is the last phrase a threat?

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tom ridge

Comments

eh (not verified)

Fri, 01/14/2005 - 05:14

[Does that mean they'll turn a blind eye to terrorists trying to sneak over the border?]

They pretty much do now; same for the US, though, really.

Presumably, a "migratory accord" would mean almost anyone (in the "willing worker, willing employer" sense) could enter legally, and so would, enabling the US to vet them.

[Is the last phrase a threat?]

One might regard it as such if you believe Mexico would offer, as sort of a quid-pro-quo, stepped up enforcement on their side in exchange for a "migratory accord" -- no quid, no pro.

Without heightened interdiction efforts (primarily the responsibility of the US), illegal crossings will still be far too easy, "migratory accord" or not.

While the threat of terrorists coming in this way is real, it seems to me that massive immigration, legal and illegal, will more surely destroy the US as we know it today than millions of terrorists in Afghanistan, Iraq, or any other godforsaken place ever could.