Calderon makes border talk personal as Bush visit ends

March 15, 2007, 1:43AM
Calderon makes border talk personal as Bush visit ends
Revealing he has relatives who work in the U.S., Mexican leader pushes reform


By PATTY REINERT and DUDLEY ALTHAUS
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

MERIDA, MEXICO — Acknowledging that he has relatives living and working in the United States, Mexico's President Felipe Calderon joined President Bush on Wednesday in arguing for an overhaul of U.S. immigration law.

"We must understand that North American prosperity can be achieved only when we have a formal, legal and solid basis by which labor can be shared," Calderon said at a morning news conference shortly before Bush returned to Washington, ending a five-nation swing through Latin America.

Calderon said his relatives are among the 2 million citizens from his native Michoacan state now living north of the Rio Grande, but he was unsure whether they were in the United States legally, and he stopped short of naming names.
(snip)

Bush repeated Wednesday what he has said throughout a trip through Latin America — to Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia and Guatemala as well as Mexico — that NAFTA, and free trade in general, would eventually bring the opportunity the region's poor need.

"NAFTA has worked," Bush said, in rejecting suggestions that parts of the treaty should be renegotiated to lessen the strain on Mexican producers competing with U.S. farmers. Many Mexican peasants fear ruin when trade barriers to U.S. corn and beans are totally dismantled next year.
(snip/...)

http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4632546.html

how many US workers are seeking a better life by working in Mexico under harsh conditions for higher Mexican wages?

borders freely, and not people.


on edit: i'm still sleepy and accidentally called Nafta "fair"

The last two trade agreements have wiped out family farms for many who have been trying to make a living on the same land in the family for generations, turning them out with no income whatsoever when the U.S. floods Mexico with products like corn selling at a price no Mexican farmers can afford to match.

So many have been destroyed already, and now they will be drowning them in far more mass produced, cheaper corn and beans, the staples of daily life for many in Mexico.

What's so odd about all this is that while the corn going to Mexico from huge U.S. food producers is cheaper there, the cost of corn products, like tortillas, has risen dramatically, creating hardship for many families.

But Bush is more than happy to yammer to them about what a great future they've got ahead once the trade barriers to US producers are completely removed.

These right-wing greedy bastards are completely heartless.

Of course, the poorest of Mexico can always avail themselves of Bush's proud achievement: they can serve in the U.S. military in his wars of choice, and if they survive, receive U.S. citizenship, and if they don't, posthumous awards and citations.

But the Mexican government had a hand in this too. I think the Mexican government should be expected to do more than just lobby for a blank check to export its poor to the US.

I don't blame the governments of India or China because so many US jobs are being outsourced there. I blame the US government. Likewise, if those trade barriers are eliminated as planned, don't you think Calderon and Vicente Fox are more to blame than Junior for not protecting Mexican farmers?

have indicated they will be destroyed when the final tariffs to American business' total freedom to sell in Mexico are removed in the near future under the current trade agreement.

But at least he still has SOME principles... (or should I say, people would drive him out of office if he didn't confront Bush?) :P

pathetic.

Calderon acting all tough on the border to gain sympathy/admiration.......good show, but who buys it?

"Some of your relatives in the U.S. illegally? That's OK -- some of my elections in the U.S. have been illegal, too."