Agricultural Personnel Management Program
University of California

6/22/01 News Report -- The Arizona Republic

Mexico will not sign any border agreement that fails to include the legalization of the 3 million to 4 million undocumented Mexican citizens already living in the United States, Mexico's foreign minister said Thursday.

"It's the whole enchilada or nothing," Jorge Castañeda told Latino journalists meeting in Phoenix. "We can't slice it one piece by one piece."

Mexico will ask for a full range of civil rights benefits for Mexicans in the United States, including Social Security numbers, driver's licenses, health care, resident college tuition and the right to join trade unions.

Legalization is the most crucial point in Mexico's four-pronged immigration agenda, which includes establishing an effective guest-worker program, ending border violence and exempting Mexico from quotas on visas.

Castañeda will represent Mexico in negotiations Sept. 4 with U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Secretary of State Colin Powell on a comprehensive agreement on border issues. Some of the specific civil rights proposals, such as driver's licenses, are already being sought in Arizona and other states by Juan Hernandez, head of Mexico's Office for Mexicans Abroad.

The dehydration deaths of 14 migrants in the desert east of Yuma last month lends a "sense of urgency" to the talks, Castañeda said.

It is the first time in recent history the United States has lifted immigration policy to the level of international diplomacy. Previously it was treated as a domestic issue.

"This is totally, radically new," Castañeda told the annual gathering of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists at Phoenix Civic Plaza.

Already, some progress has been made. Specific agreements on border safety issues will be made public today at joint announcements in Mexico City and Washington.

Mexico's overarching goal in the immigration talks is to "restore the concept of circularity" and allow Mexican workers to circulate freely from job sites in the United States to family homelands in Mexico, Castañeda said.

Those seasonal migration patterns have been in place for more than a century. Recent immigration policies have discouraged circularity, giving Mexicans added incentive to stay in the United States once they have made the dangerous border crossing.

Castañeda shied away from discussing the politically charged topic of amnesty for border crossers during his remarks in Phoenix, choosing the words "regularization" and "legalization," instead.

Much hinges on the exact meaning of these words, said Mark Krikorian, director of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies.

Proponents of guest-worker programs, such as Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, have balked at using the "A" word, "amnesty," which is favored by some advocates for immigrants. Amnesty would provide access to green cards, which signify permanent residence and are a step toward citizenship.

Gramm proposes to allow Mexican guest workers to stay in the United States for a limited time, after which they would be required to go home. They could apply again to be guest workers once they had stayed south of the border for a prescribed period, but could not become citizens.

Some advocates for immigrants are seeking to achieve effective amnesty by promoting "earned adjustment." That would make migrants eligible for green cards after a certain time as guest workers.

"The word 'amnesty' has been used almost exclusively to mean permanent residence, but 'regularize' has been used in a variety of ways," Krikorian said. "It can mean different things to different people."

By talking of legalization, Castañeda "may be making a deliberate effort to avoid committing himself" on any of the guest-worker proposals, Krikorian said.