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Mexico's help with terrorists? Not unless U.S. enacts reforms
On Tuesday, former Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing: "No border security is possible without Mexican cooperation" and "there can be no cooperation [from the Mexican government] without some sort of immigration reform package." According to a report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, Castaneda, now a professor at New York University, went on to describe immigration reform as amnesty for all Mexicans living illegally in the U.S., the admission of some 5 million additional Mexican citizens to the U.S. over the next 10 years, and massive increases in U.S. aid to that country. The official said if such reform is enacted, Mexico would offer "tough" but "non-coercive" assistance in the effort to prevent terrorists from entering the U.S. via Mexico. "Jorge Castaneda is not some obscure voice from Mexico's distant political past," commented Dan Stein, president of FAIR. "He served as foreign minister in the current Mexican administration. It is imperative that the Fox government issue a formal repudiation of Castaneda's remarks and assure the American public that their cooperation in the war against terrorism will not come at the price of extortion." Stein hammered the senators on the committee for not challenging Castaneda during his testimony. "When anyone, much less a former foreign minister of a supposedly friendly nation, comes before a committee of the United States Senate and issues ultimatums and thinly veiled threats against the United States, one would expect outrage and condemnation from members of Congress. Instead, we got meek acquiescence or deafening silence from the members who were present," said Stein. "If the government of Mexico is not prepared to join us in this struggle, without conditions, then they cannot claim to be an ally and our government must view them as such. Allies do not engage in extortion."
Posted by: Steve White 2005-07-17 |
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