U.S. IMMIGRATION LAW SPARKS NEW FUROR IN MEXICO By Dan Trotta
Copyright (c) 1997, Reuters, Limited

Fresh off a row over the war on drugs, U.S.Mexican
relations have taken another nasty turn when Mexican
legislators from all four parties in the lower house
condemned a tough new U.S. immigration law.

One legislator on Monday even proposed withholding
$10,000 in debt payments to the United States for every
Mexican deported until the dispute can be sorted out, and a
consultant for the Mexican consulate in San Diego called
the law "racist." The new law, set to take effect April 1,
seeks to put some teeth into old laws, allowing for fines
from $50 to $250 against mostly poor immigrants who cross
the border illegally, seeking deportation for life against
some.

Legislators in Mexico's Chamber of Deputies demanded
that Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo pass along their
protest to President Bill Clinton during the U.S.
president's planned visit to Mexico this spring.

A measure signed by all four parties called on Mexico's
foreign ministry to do all it could to pressure the United
States into delaying the law.

"We have to tell the North Americans for example that
for each migrant worker that they deport to us we are going
to stop paying $10,000 on the foreign debt," Deputy
Cuauhtemoc Sandoval of the centreleft Party of the
Democratic Revolution told his colleagues.

"That $10,000 we are going to invest to create jobs in
Mexico," he said.

Hundreds of thousands of Mexican illegal immigrants are
deported from the United States each year, a small minority
in the massive tide that flows to the United States seeking
jobs. The MexicanU.S. controversy on immigration follows a
more contentious one over drug trafficking, in which
Clinton, the House of Representatives and the Senate each
took turns judging whether Mexico was worthy of
"certification" as a fullfledged partner in the war on
drugs.

The U.S. certification process was roundly villified in
Mexico as trampling on the nation's sovereignty and a
duplicious effort by the United States to blame Mexico for
its enormous demand for illegal drugs.

Mexican passions perhaps are inflamed more only by the
immigration issue. In the Mexican view, illegally seeking
work in United States is an annual rite widely taken for
granted as a noble effort to bring home the bacon.

Antiimmigrant sentiment in the United States has grown
notably in recent years. In California, voters have
attempted to strip illegal aliens of their benefits.

"Migrant workers are not delinquents," said Francisco
Dominguez of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party
(PRI). "They merit respect for their personal dignity and a
reevaluation of their value in contributing to the economy
and prosperty of the United States." Lilia Velazquez, a
consultant for Mexican consulate in San Diego, gateway for
up to half of Mexicans entering the United States, assailed
the law in an interview with the Televisa television
network.

"Yes, they are racist, oppressive laws and very unjust
that not only attack the undocumented immigrant but also
the legal immigrant," Velazquez said.