[NYTr] Calderon: US Congress 'insensitive' to immigrants

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Milt Shapiro (mexnews)


AFP - Aug 10, 2007


Mexico's Calderon: US Congress 'insensitive' to immigrants

Agence France Presse.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Thursday called the US Congress 
"insensitive" to the dignity of Mexican migrant workers.

Calderon demanded "full respect for the dignity of our migrants."

"We demand that the (US) government and the Congress understand this 
social and economic aspect of migration: that it cannot be stopped so 
long as there is this unequal development between the United States 
and Mexico," Calderon said.

"The migration problem can be resolved neither with walls nor with 
political exclusion," he said, referring to a 1,200-kilometer 
(750-mile) wall the Congress has authorized for the southwestern US 
border.

"The insensitivity of US members of Congress for us is no more than a 
spur to redouble our struggle for full recognition of the enormous 
contribution we make to the US economy," he added.

"Many in the Congress turn their backs on this fact: that the US 
economy could not grow without Mexican labor," Calderon said during 
the handover of aid for projects in Mexican emigrants' hometowns.

The Mexican president reported that he has said as much to his US 
counterpart, George W. Bush.

Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse.