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April 21, 2006

Immigration This Week

Here is a set of recent immigration links. Senator Jon Cornyn has a good summary of why the Compromise bill that was defeating in the senate was such a bad idea and would have been an amnesty even broader than the one given by Reagan. His site has most of the relevant text of the bill:

The Compromise bill includes language that would prevent the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from detaining or deporting any alien who files an application with the government. The “safe harbor” provisions would apply even if the alien was ineligible for the amnesty because of prior criminal violations. Moreover, DHS would be required to issue the alien a secure travel and work authorization document while the application was pending.

The AP reports on a raid on a company. You hear about big raids like this every once in a while, but there are never enough of them to be a major deterrent. Until the government consistently prosecutes employers, we will have an illegal immigration problem.

Immigration agents arrested seven executives and hundreds of employees of a manufacturer of crates and pallets Wednesday as part of a crackdown on employers of illegal workers.

Authorities raided offices and plants of IFCO Systems in at least eight states, the culmination of a yearlong criminal investigation, law enforcement officials said.

Finally, here is a story out of Mexico. Note the hypocrisy of Mexican citizens complaining about how the US treats illegal immigrants, while remaining silent about the constant abuse heaped on true refuges in Mexico.

Considered felons by the government, these migrants fear detention, rape and robbery. Police and soldiers hunt them down at railroads, bus stations and fleabag hotels. Sometimes they are deported; more often officers simply take their money.

While migrants in the United States have held huge demonstrations in recent weeks, the hundreds of thousands of undocumented Central Americans in Mexico suffer mostly in silence.

And though Mexico demands humane treatment for its citizens who migrate to the U.S., regardless of their legal status, Mexico provides few protections for migrants on its own soil. The issue simply isn't on the country's political agenda, perhaps because migrants make up only 0.5 percent of the population, or about 500,000 people - compared with 12 percent in the United States.

Posted by Pete at April 21, 2006 08:07 AM

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Comments

NPR did a really interesting piece on migrants coming from Chiapas (Southern Mexico) to the U.S. border on the tops of trains. Basically, there are gangs that control the trains that regularly extort, rob, or murder people on the trains. The lady who did the story talked to a kid that made the ride and did the ride herself, although she was escorted by a vigilante-type group that independently battles these gangs.

I think you make a great point about Mexico's government. Clearly, there are lots of reasons why people want to come here, although we don't treat our poor that great, it is certainly better than many other countries.

Posted by: Jeff at April 21, 2006 01:10 PM