More threats from our friends to the south:

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 matricula consular... The president told the audience, that included U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson: "The matricula 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."

...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...

...Noting that Schwarzenegger recently vetoed the bill to allow the issuance of driver's licenses to immigrants, Derbez secondly said that the matricula consular "should be sufficient in order to obtain a driver's license."

...[a quote from Gil Cedillo is provided as background:] "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."

..."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," [Derbez] 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...

...In an interview with the Mexican magazine Proceso, [recently replaced Mexican consul general to San Francisco Georgina Lagos] noted the important role she and five other consul generals in California had played in the growing acceptance of the matricula 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.

The whole article should set off alarm bells in the minds of those who don't already hear those bells. While it's but a sidenote, the reader will note Gil Cedillo's use of the word "we" when referring to illegal aliens. I don't think he's calling himself an illegal alien. Rather, he thinks of himself first and foremost as a Mexican and not a Mexican-American.