The bill that proposed a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States now lays dead on the Senate floor, where it will likely stay until after the 2008 presidential election. Latin American leaders expressed their disappointment, with Mexican President Felipe Calderon calling the Senate’s defeat of the bill, “a grave error” and Salvadorian President Elias Antonio Saca labelling the bill’s demise, “a pity”. Yet a much more incensed tone arose from the Latin American press. An op-ed in the Mexican newspaper La Jornada placed responsibility on the shoulders of President Bush, who failed to rally support from his own party behind the bill. Mexico City’s El Universal accused the US of hypocrisy, wanting workers but not willing to incorporate them in the legal system. El Universal, however, did place at least part of the blame on the Mexican government for not creating enough jobs and forcing millions to emigrate.
Migrant advocacy groups also expressed frustration at the political impasse, lamenting what it meant for the Latino labourers working in the US. “It means the continuation and probably a worsening of the migrants' vulnerable conditions,” said Jorge Bustamante of the UN’s human rights commission for migrants. The National Immigration Forum out of Washington released an online statement declaring that a temporary work program was the only sensible way to combat the exploitation of migrants.
Opponents of a temporary worker program, however, contended that such a measure would reward those who broke the law, and would only encourage more people to cross the border illegally. A porous border between the US and Mexico is a major threat to national security, critics argue, and prevents the Department of Homeland Security from effectively monitoring foreign activity in the US.
The issues of border security and immigration have strained relations between Mexico and the United States. The prospect of the US erecting a 300-mile long fence along the border produced a bitter reaction from President Calderon, who compared it to the Berlin Wall and called the idea of a fence, “deplorable”. If a temporary worker program ever has a chance of passing through Congress, however, it will most likely be accompanied by a major crackdown on border security, including a fence along the US-Mexico border.
Until the Senate revives the debate, the future status of the 12 million undocumented Latino workers in the US remains unclear.
Should Mexico oppose the US’s fortification of the border if Congress can deliver a temporary work program?
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