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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | April 2006 
U.S.-Mexico Immigration Study Recommends Mexico Block Dangerous Illegal Crossing Points
 Mark Stevenson - Associated Press
| | Members of Mexico's Beta group, a government-sponored agency that assists and warns migrants about the dangers of illegally crossing into the U.S., speaks to van's full of would-be migrants being taken to the border line near the town of Sasabe, Mexico. (AP/Dario Lopez-Mills) |
Mexico City – An immigration study partly funded by the Mexican government recommended Friday that Mexico bar its citizens from the most dangerous illegal border crossings.
The recommendations from the joint report by U.S. and Mexican immigration experts run counter to Mexico's long-standing claim that it cannot prevent its own citizens from massing at the border, because the constitution guarantees freedom of movement.
But Assistant Foreign Relations Secretary Geronimo Gutierrez said his country was willing to consider the recommendation that “restricted access zones should be established in dangerous areas.”
“It's no secret this topic has been taboo in Mexican politics,” Gutierrez said at a news conference presenting the report. He added, “We are open to analyzing this.”
“We are not closed to any option,” said Gutierrez, who called for a wider debate on Mexico's role and responsibilities in migration issues.
The study also suggested the U.S. provide more temporary work visas and enforce visa requirements.
Mexico has long defended its citizens' right to migrate, and Gutierrez said the debate “is just in the beginning stage.”
The report – by Susan Martin of Georgetown University and Agustin Escobar of Mexico's Center for Research on Social Anthropology – recommends more temporary worker visas, but says that in order for them to work, the programs need to be simplified, workers encouraged to return to their home countries and sanctions enforced against employers who hire or recruit undocumented labor instead.
However, Martin said that constant, small-scale enforcement would be more effective than big, one-time raids on employers like those carried out this week against the largest U.S. pallet services company.
The two-year research project found that immigrants in general have a small, net positive effect on the U.S. economy: They tend to decrease wages for low-skilled workers and previous immigrants, but increase business profits.
It also found that Mexican migrants are staying longer in the United States, not so much because of tougher border security, but because they now are more likely to have steady, urban employment rather than the seasonal farm jobs that used to predominate.
And while Mexican migrants to the United States are only slightly better-educated than Mexico's national average of about an eighth-grade education, there is also a “brain drain”: Almost one-third of Mexicans with post-graduate education are in the United States. |
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