Central American countries challenge US migration plan (Xinhua) Updated: 2006-01-10 11:00
The foreign ministers of Central American countries rejected a U.S.
anti-immigrant plan in a joint declaration issued on Monday.
Foreign ministers from Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala and other
Central American countries held a meeting Monday to find ways to defend the
rights of migrants who travel to the United States seeking jobs.
"Migrants, regardless of their status, are not and should not be treated like
criminals," the declaration said.
The U.S. House of Representatives approved a plan on December 16, which would
extend a frontier wall with Mexico by a further 1,200 km, increase the number of
agents on the border, and send undocumented workers to prison instead of merely
deporting them.
The plan, which is yet to be ratified by the U.S. Senate, was immediately
rejected by Latin America's governments and civil organizations, who said it
would increase the violent treatment of their citizens seeking to emigrate to
the United States.
The declaration also called for the United States to guarantee the human
rights of migrants in any new legal proposals and to strictly observe labor
laws.
Luis Ernesto Derbez, Mexican foreign minister, said that Central American
governments would be uncompromising in the defense of their citizens' legal
rights.
Derbez also said he had ordered the establishment of a working group on
migration to coordinate policy in the face of the U.S. reforms, which represent
a dramatic toughening of the existing rules.
Thousands of people are thought to cross the 3,200 km U.S.-Mexico border
illegally every day, some risking their lives, in search of work in the United
States.
Also on Monday, Ruben Aguilar, the Mexican president's spokesman, said that
the rate of migration to the United States had slowed in recent years, and,
contrary to common belief, a majority (85 percent) of the migrants had already
been employed in Mexico.
Aguilar claimed that the migration rate had reduced due to the "social policy
of the Mexican state, which is reducing extreme poverty."
Mexico's official figures show that an average of 400,000 Mexicans emigrated
to the United States each year during the five-year rule of President Vicente
Fox.
The United States is now home to 10 million Mexican citizens, half of whom,
according to estimates, are undocumented.
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