Mexico warned Tuesday it would file lawsuits in US courts if
National Guard troops detain migrants on the border, and some
officials said they fear the crackdown will force illegal crossers
into more perilous areas to avoid detection.
President George W. Bush announced Monday that he will send
6,000 National Guard troops to the 2,000-mile US-Mexico border, but
said the troops will provide intelligence and surveillance support
to US Border Patrol agents and will not catch and detain illegal
immigrants.
"If there is a real wave of rights abuses, if we see the
National Guard starting to directly participate in detaining people
... we would immediately start filing lawsuits through our
consulates," Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said in an
interview with a Mexico City radio station.
Mexican officials worry the increased security at the US border
will lead to more deaths. Since the bolstered surveillance at
crossing spots in Texas and California in 1994, migrants have
flooded Arizona's hard-to-patrol desert and deaths have spiked.
Migrant groups estimate 500 people died trying to cross the
border in 2005. The Border Patrol reported 473 deaths as of
September 30.
Sending the National Guard "will not stop the flow of migrants,
to the contrary, it will probably go up," as people try to get into
the US with hopes of applying for a possible amnesty program, said
Julieta Nunez Gonzalez, the Ciudad Juarez representative of
Mexico's National Immigration Institute.
Nunez said she planned to ask the Mexican government to send a
migrant protection force, Grupo Beta, to more remote sections of
the border.
The dusty outpost near the New Mexico border has turned into a
smugglers haven after the US Border Patrol increased its presence
on the Arizona border.
Along the border in Nuevo Laredo, Carlos Gonzalez, a 23-year old
from Mexico's southern state of Chiapas, was waiting for a chance
to swim across the river into Texas. He said soldiers would not
stop him getting to a construction job he had lined up in North
Carolina.
"Desperation gives one a lot of willpower. If they stop me 20
times, I'll arrive on the 21st," Gonzalez said resting on a street
corner outside a migrant shelter.
However, Carlos Ferrera, a 27-year-old from Honduras who lost
part of his arm in a recent car accident, was worried that the
National Guard could push him into dangerous terrain when he
crosses to get to a US$8.5 per hour landscaping job in Dallas.
"The more reinforced the border is the further we will have to
go to find places to get in." Ferrera said.
Mexican newspapers Tuesday characterized the decision as a
hardening of the US position, and some criticized President Vicente
Fox for not taking a stronger stand, though Fox called Bush on
Sunday to express his concerns.
Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, said Tuesday that Mexico
accepted Bush's statement that the Guard troops didn't imply a
militarization of area, and that Mexico remained "optimistic" that
the US Senate would approve an immigration policy "in the interests
of both countries."
He noted Bush expressed support for the legalization of some
immigrants and the implementation of a guest worker program.
"This is definitely not a militarization," said Aguilar.
Salvadoran President Tony Saca said he worried that there could
be an increase in abuses against migrants because National Guard
troops are trained to handle natural disasters and wars.
(Chinadaily.com.cn via agencies, May 17, 2006)
